


assimilation

by Ghost0Silvers



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blood Drinking, Blowjobs, Canon-Typical Violence, Case Fic, Creepy Vampires, Drama, Eventual Romance, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Gavin Reed Being Less of an Asshole, Instead of Androids they are Vampires, Lots of Cursing, M/M, Mute Nines, Other characters mentioned - Freeform, Pre-Relationship, Protective Connor (Detroit: Become Human), This got out of hand somehow, Vampires, well kinda
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-31
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2019-10-19 18:42:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 73,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17606834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghost0Silvers/pseuds/Ghost0Silvers
Summary: CyberLife genetically engineered vampires and sold them off as pets, as lovers, as workers, as anything the public wanted, promising that they were controlled and tame. The revolution still happened and the world is coming to terms that vampires are people, really vampires are coming to terms that they are people. Through it all Nine ends up following Connor's footsteps and works for the DPD because he has nowhere else to go and nothing else to do. Working with Gavin might be something of a challenge, for both of them, but they both can adapt and figure out things as they go. Nine just wants to be his own person, and Gavin really wishes people would remember that he can adult perfectly fine on his own damn it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have got to stop doing random stories in one sitting, I really do, they come out super random and off the wall. So here is DBH with vampires just because it can be done and my brain wanted to do it? 
> 
> Warning that I do not proof read anything I write, and I really do fail at contractions though I tried really hard for this story!

"What do we really know about Vampires?"

Gavin snorted into his coffee, eyes trained on the TV screen as he tried to not glance over to the leech sitting not three feet from him. He could answer that one easily enough. Nothing, they knew fucking nothing. Nothing important anyway. Four months after the leeches gained freedom and there was still almost nothing known to the public about them. Fuck, Gavin would be hard pressed to come up with more than a couple of facts if pressed and he had been working with one for over a month now. 

There was movement to the side and Gavin did not flinch, no he fucking did not, but he did at least turn enough to give his partner a side-eyed glare. That was all the leech needed to sign out his question, hands moving smoothly in a way no human would ever be able to copy. It was fucking creepy. 

Gavin really wished sometimes that he had lied. How the fuck was he supposed to know that admitting to knowing ASL would get him stuck with a partner, a blood sucker at that? Then again Tina would have likely ratted him out in her overly helpful way and then he would still be in the same boat. It fucking sucked. 

There was a sharp tap on the table and Gavin did flinch from that, but finally set his coffee mug down, harder than he meant to. “Yeah yeah, we can head out in a fucking moment, not like the dead lady is going anywhere.” For fucks sake they just got the call not even five minutes ago, Gavin had time to finish his damned coffee. The blood sucker was only in a rush because of how late it was, he always got antsy the last couple hours before sunrise. 

That was one fact at least, mostly, vampires did hate the sun. They could go in it without bursting into flames though, more the pity, that would have solved so many problems. Gavin had not figured out the exacts, and not bothered to fucking ask either. He had been shoved into night shifts and he dealt with it, not like he cared to see Nine’s face in broad daylight, the fucker was creepy enough in the shity florescent. Sunlight was a thing though, still hurt them, made them weaker at least, was all Gavin really knew. That was only because of the other leech in the precinct though, had to deal with Anderson freaking out once over the idiot. Like it was a person instead of some fucked up lab experiment. 

Gavin finally stood and moved to leave his mug in the break room sink, he would take care of it later, tried to stifle a yawn as he shuffled along and really wished he was at home in bed. Flipping to nights was not really that bad, the problem was that he lived in an apartment building and trying to sleep when everyone else was going about their day fucking sucked. Nine snapped his fingers to get attention and Gavin flipped him off, he was not a goddamn dog, there was another snap, sharper this time. Gavin snarled on that, turned to say something and ran into a fucking brick wall. At least that was what it felt like. 

Nine gave a silent stare before signing when Gavin stared up, not bothering to try to help Gavin off his ass, ‘I did try to warn you detective.’ Yeah yeah, fine, was his own fault, fine, Gavin grumbled and did not look at the other leech that had been in his way. He put up with Nine, Connor was fucking creepy though, creepier, no better word for it than that. Gavin ignored the hand that was offered, and went still when instead he was yanked to his feet and steadied. 

“My fault really, sorry about that.” Overly chipper tone was like nails on a chalkboard and Gavin did not miss how Nine narrowed his eyes as if even he was annoyed. “I was coming to find you though, Detective Reed. Have you had any luck finding a new apartment yet? I can offer you some suggestions if you would like?” See this was part of why Connor was creepy, he had this thing where he just had to butt into everyone’s business and try to be helpful. Gavin ground his teeth together and stepped back, outside of easy touching range, nevermind that the leech could move faster than he could see. Wanted to ask how the fuck he knew about the apartment hunt, but there were apartment guide books on his desk, in plain view. Fine. Fucking fine. 

Went around the vampire to stomp off, had a crime scene to get to after all, so it was not really running away. “Fuck off, and never touch me again.” Grumbled words as he hunched in on himself, glad that he was wearing his jacket so at least he knew he was only imaging the chill of the leech's hands. That had been one of the first rules set between Nine and himself, set in stone on day one. No contact. Oddly it had been Nine putting that rule forward but Gavin was all too happy with it, he did not need to know if vampires felt the same as a corpse, skin too cold and just a bit too stiff. 

Outside was cold but that was normal enough this time of year, just left Gavin tucking his chin into the collar of his jacket and wishing he had thought to grab a scarf or something, fuck would take one of those girly ear warmer wrap things right now. Fumbled for the car keys with frozen fingers and tossed them over to Nine, “You drive.” He needed a catnap, the scene was a good forty minutes away and he was not stupid, he knew if he drove he would be yawning again in less than five minutes. Really did need to find a new apartment, lack of real sleep was going to get his ass killed at some point. Did not even doubt that Nine caught the keys without a pause, just opened the passenger door and slid in, glad to at least be out of the wind. 

It had taken a couple of weeks to get used to the silence, Nine was the opposite of his look-a-like really. Connor tried too damned hard to be liked, to come off as alive and warm, as a person, made sure his shoes made sounds when he walked and bothered to breathe and all that shit. It was creepy as fuck, but apparently Gavin was the only one that thought so, maybe he was the only one to realize that the leech did everything to a rhythm, there was a count to ever sound he made. It had only taken Gavin a few hours of being stuck on desk work to realize it, that even Connor’s fidgeting with his fucking quarter was set to a pattern. He tried too hard to be something he never could be. 

Nine at least seemed to give no shits what other people thought, only time he made a sound was to get attention to sign something, or if something was outside of his control like the jingle of keys to start the car. No wasted time on trying to breathe or tap his fingers or play with random bits. Gavin could grudgingly appreciate the lack of bullshit he had to put up with. Really if pressured Gavin might admit this whole thing was not completely terrible, sure it sucked that he got shoved into working with some leech but that anger had worn off already. Nine was creepy as fuck, not even remotely human and sometimes Gavin really wished the guy would just fuck off. But he also was in fact a decent partner, he kept up with shit and did not slow Gavin down, did not get in the way of letting Gavin do shit his way, simply cleaned up whatever mess then offered a different plan. Not that Gavin was going to ever admit he found a leech halfway decent. 

When the car finally started to warm up he drifted off easily enough, sleep pulling him under hard and fast, testimony that he really needed to figure something out for his sleep schedule. 

It was the car turning off that woke him up, left Gavin to blink awake and curse because his eyes were gummy and one of his contacts was fucking up. There was the soft sound of a bag that made him glance over, one eye closed because of blurry vision. Coffee and eye drops. Gavin could casually ignore the black thermos that Nine had for himself, or the idea that his offered coffee came from some leech run cafe somewhere. Whatever, it was coffee and likely would not kill him. Eye drops first, and he was not asking at all how Nine knew he would need them, that had been something else to get used to. Nine just knew shit. Whatever. 

The coffee was fucking perfect, almost too hot and too bitter and perfect and Gavin wrapped both hands around it once he was out of the car like somehow it would shield him from the wind. The nap had only given him a low grade headache, which figured really, was his type of shitty luck. Was steps from the house when Nine snapped and signed, ‘There is another vampire here.’ That made Gavin narrow eyes at him before glancing at the house, there were sounds of movement inside, the soft murmur of conversation. There was a forensic team inside so likely it was safe enough, but he still hesitated a moment. 

Nothing to do but go in and see what was going on, it was becoming more common that Gavin got stuck on cases with vamps, was just what would happen being partnered with one. It was annoying and Gavin was not sure he would ever be comfortable with it, but it was what it was. 

“Reed, took your time getting here huh, happen to bring coffee for the rest of us?” Uhg, somehow always forgot how loud people were, too many hours stuck with Nine and his silence. Left Gavin clutching his coffee closer and scowling but his reaction was just laughed at and things got down to business. “Victim is Sarah Dawley, looks like the perp broke in through the kitchen door and she got in the way to protect the kids. Roommate is Claria, just Claria, came home to find the scene and called it in.” There was a shrug and Gavin moved farther into the house, glancing over the happy family pictures and how the progressed. 

Smiling faces with wife, husband and one kid. Smiling wife and neutral husband with one kid and a baby. A bunch with just the woman, likely Sarah, and the kids, new house and yard, this house in fact. Progressed into another person being added to the pictures like a shadow that crept in, all night set pictures of kids climbing over a pale woman in the snow with a lopsided snowman. Gavin snorted and pushed forward to the kitchen, happy fucking family was not going to be happy anymore. That was part of the job that sucked. Gavin might not like kids, but knowing there were now two that lost their mom because some fucktard got an idea in their head was fucked up. 

Ben followed along, “Kids and the roommate are upstairs right now, the littlest one conked back out pretty fast and the roommate says she has nowhere to go this close to sunrise.” He shrugged and gave a side eye glance to Nine like somehow Nine would do something or say something. Gavin did not have to look to know that Nine did not even acknowledge Ben’s existence, was rare that the leech bothered to so much as glance at other people. Was likely for the best, most people got weird around vamps. 

“We can talk to them later.” Gavin muttered as he glanced over the kitchen with a frown, there was nothing orderly about this, nothing planned even. Ben shrugged and walked off to leave them alone and Nine circled inside the kitchen, careful to not step on anything. “Perp didn’t fucking break in, there is a key in the door.” The knife that was used as the murder weapon was part of the set on the counter even. Nine nudged the backdoor open wider and tapped his shoe at the hide-a-key rock that was tossed on the steps. Gavin hated those things, was the stupidest way to go hiding a key, everyone and their second cousin knew to look for those when casing a house. 

However this was not a robbery, hell Gavin was betting this was not even supposed to be a murder. Nothing looked missing, fuck he doubted the perp ever left the kitchen. Still there was another knife missing, maybe in the dishwasher, maybe not, there were papers scattered across the floor and wet with blood. The papers got his attention first, though Nine was already answering that, fingers moving as he picked his way back across the kitchen. ‘Divorce file.’ Yeah this was not supposed to be a murder at all, so what, poor husband got replaced by a vamp, came to try to talk and plead, ended up snapping instead? Well Gavin had seen stupider reasons for murder, not by much, but people were pretty stupid most of the time. 

“So need to find the husband, easy open-closed case.” Gavin shrugged and took a sip of coffee, disappointed that it was almost empty already. “Guess will at least get statements from upstairs, make sure the ‘roommate’ has an alibi.” Nine was very suddenly standing at his side and Gavin almost sighed at him, really the leech acted like Gavin was going to go poking at another vamp on his own. “Yeah yeah, lead on, this is more your thing than mine.” Kids and vamps, no thanks, he could just act as interpreter as need be. Nine lead the way and it made Gavin want to snort at him, was weird that in moments like this Nine was the most human, weird and overprotective but more human. 

Both kids and leech were in the master bedroom, another cop standing outside the door, maybe to keep them inside, who knew, Gavin just grunted at him and ignored him otherwise. Did not exactly expect the other leech to tense up and drop her eyes, a soft almost terrified word escaping her, “Hunter.” Might not expect it, but it was not as much of a surprise these days, first time though, yeah, first time Gavin had been mostly confused on how other blood suckers reacted to Nine. Had even broken down and asked Anderson just to get confirmation that yeah same thing happened with Connor sometimes, not as often though, apparently he looked too much like a puppy dog to be taken as anything else. 

There was a soft exhale of air that was pretty much the best sigh that Nine could give, apparently it wore on him sometimes, that he was only ever remembered as what he had been. There was a story there that Gavin just did not care enough about to ask, he got the jist of it, the important bits. Nine had been used as an attack dog before the uprising, hunted down his own kind at the command of CyberLife. He was sure it was all very epic and tragic and whatever other bullshit word that could be tossed in. 

“Just have a few questions for you, if you can, need to know where you been since sunset, what time you got in, that sort of thing.” Gavin flashed his badge automatically and was almost amused to note that she relaxed when he addressed her instead of Nine. Pulled out a pocket notebook and pen and looked at her, not in the mood to dance around, it was late as fuck and there were better things he could be doing with his time. 

“Oh, um, work, I was at work, I do overnight IT at the downtown hospital. In the server rooms only of course, I don’t… I don’t work on the patient floor unless there is an emergency with a terminal.” She rushed through explaining, like somehow Gavin cared. “Tonight was a seven to four shift. I have business cards in my purse, by the front door.” Eh he could just place a call later to make sure she had been at work. “I got home, umm, four-thirty-ish? Sarah asked me to pick up milk for the kid’s cereal.” There had been a carton of milk sitting in the living room, likely set down when Claria had smelled the blood. “It had to be Mike, I know it sounds bad, pointing fingers at him, but he kept calling, he tried to show up once and Sarah called the cops. He tried to show up at her work once but got thrown out. It has to be him, he was so angry that she left, he blamed me like I was the one that drove them apart.” 

This was quickly turning into a sob story and Gavin snapped his notebook shut to cut her off. “All venues will be investigated, thank you for your time.” Did not wait for anything else she had to say, simply turned to leave, glad at least the oldest child had simple watched with dull eyes instead of speaking up. 

It was a rush of air that had Gavin throwing himself out the bedroom door, pulling his service pistol and waiting for the first flash of violence because no matter how fast he was a leech would always be faster. The beat cop at the door had froze, eyes wide and half a step back like that would help somehow. Gavin let out a low curse and shoved the gun back in the holster, cutting Claria a glare from where she was held, shoved against the door frame with a hand around her neck. There were tears in her eyes, red tinted and she looked at him like she was pleading, like she was terrified. Well she should have thought about that before doing something stupid. 

“Fucking hell, Nine let her go.” Nine did not so much as glance at Gavin though, instead bared teeth at the vampire in his grasp, she whimpered and the beat cop fainted. Somehow it was that thump that made Nine break his glare off to blink down at the cop like the reaction was puzzling. “Well shit, good job, can’t wait to get yelled at for that, come on already, she’s fucking harmless.” Gavin gave a kick to the cop, not in the mood to play nice, glad that the guy groaned and shifted, “Get down stairs, you’re useless up here, shit a pomeranian would be a better guard dog.” 

Nine finally drew back, face blank and still looked unimpressed as hell as he watched first Claria slink back into the bedroom then the cop work on running away. Quickly walking away, but basically running away. There was not enough coffee in the world. Gavin shook his head and walked off, down the stairs and ignored Ben looking like he wanted to say something. Fucking vampires. Fucking lack of sleep. 

The cold air was a slap in the face that was almost needed right now as he went for the car, he would drive this time, the coffee would make him jittery if he tried to nap now. Slumped in the driver's seat with a sigh, then repositioned it because fuck vampires and their long ass legs. Reached for the rear view mirror to adjust it and saw the flash of movement a second too slow, tried to twist in time to grab the arm that came from the back seat. Only managed to make the stab go off center and Gavin grunted at the slick wash of pain of a knife cutting through flesh. 

Next moment went a little wonky, something hit the car hard enough the entire frame shook and then the back door was ripped off it’s hinges and the guy in the backseat was grabbed and thrown out. Gavin curled in over himself, hand to his chest and cursing anything he could fucking think of. There was a goddamn knife in his chest. Found the missing kitchen knife at least. Not exactly how he wanted to find it. Took a breath and held it when his vision exploded white, but there was a hand at his neck, fingers pressed against his pulse point and Gavin grit his teeth. “Not dead asshole.” Was hurt and pissed the fuck off, but the knife was closer to his right shoulder than properly in his chest . 

When he could see it was to realize that the driver’s door had the same treatment as the back door, in that it was laying a few feet away. “Mother fucker I liked this car.” Nevermind that he was bleeding on the seat, bloodstains were easier to ignore than missing doors. There was a click of tongue against teeth and Gavin almost automatically focused on Nine, was harder to focus on his hands however. Apparently being stabbed made mild headaches turn into full blown migraines, and the flashing of emergency lights did not help at all. 

‘Going to pick you up.’ 

“The fuck you are.” Gavin batted at the vampire and turned enough to get his legs out of the car and the world swam in a mess of colors but he did not pass out thank you very much. He just slumped against the car frame and privately admitted this was a bad time to let pride push him forward. “Alright, you’re going to pick me up.” Did not miss the smirk that flashed over the leech’s face, just ignored it for now in light of what was going on. Also ignored that Nine scooped him up like he was picking up a feather, or that he cradled Gavin in bridal carry. Mostly because oh look an ambulance was coming down the street, that was great. That meant that now he could in fact pass the fuck out because it would be better than dealing with the bullshit of being asked his date of birth fifty times over like the answer would magically change. Seriously what was with every single nurse or doctor having to ask that anytime they did anything? It was bullshit. 

_________________________________________

Waking up from passing out sucks. It was nothing like waking up from a long sleep. There was nothing calming or peaceful about it at all and anyone that said different were fucking liars. There was a nurse taking his blood pressure and likely that was what really woke him up. “Hey.” His voice was more gravel than anything but she seemed to get the point and smiled at him like he had not possibly just scared her. “Oh you’re awake mister Reed, wonderful, let me get you some water and your doctor.” Yeah, that sounded like a great plan right there, mostly the water bit now that he thought about it. The nurse bound out of the room, like she was almost skipping, now that was a lady on too much coffee and sugar. 

Gavin noticed Nine only a moment later and blinked at the leech sitting in the corner like a creeper, Nine blinked back before moving to stand and come closer. Oh he had water, fuck it he could be the creeper in the corner as much as he wanted, Gavin made grabby hands for the bottle and totally ignored that Nine rolled his eyes. Half a bottle of water later and Gavin was feeling much better, still a bit fuzzy but much better nonetheless. Fuzzy as in he was totally on pain meds and someone had thought to remove his contacts so the world was fuzzy. “From now on you are always getting in the car first.” Because that had sucked. Was not his first time getting stabbed but it never got any more fun. 

Nine dipped his head into a nod, agreeing easily enough, then hesitated before commenting, the motions slower than normal. ‘The husband is down a floor.’ Gavin snorted, rather glad of that, the fucker needed put in the hospital. Really what great plan was there in hiding in a car and stabbing someone. ‘He admitted to everything.’ Well that figured of course, Gavin almost wanted to bitch that it was his case, but then he was laid up in a hospital bed at the moment so figured he had to let it go. 

“Mister Reed, how are you feeling today?” The doctor breezed into the room with no regard to any other conversation going on and Nine pulled back to his claimed corner. It left Gavin staring at the doctor like he was a moron. “Well like I got stabbed by a crazy guy with a kitchen knife.” That seemed to throw the doctor off a moment, really what type of answer did he expect? “Ah, well, that is what happened, yes. Glanced off your sternum and went in four point two inches, lucky you left it in really, otherwise things could have been much worse.” Gavin stared at him some more, really did the guy not know he was talking to a cop? It was pretty much rule one about stabs, leave the fucking knife in. Maybe that was rule two. Was pretty sure rule one was to not get stabbed in the first place. 

“We do want to keep you till at least tomorrow morning, but the risk of blood clots is almost nonexistent, and we did start you on a round of antibiotics, just in case.” Yeah that was pretty normal, after all no idea how clean the knife was, none of this was new really. Gavin still was going to argue, he always did. “Yeah, no thanks, I’ll take discharge papers now if you could.” Fucking hated hospitals, how anyone managed to rest in these places was past him. The doctor frowned at him and glanced at Nine like somehow the vamp would take his side on things, which was a laugh really. “I can have a nurse bring the papers for you to read, but it would be best if you stayed for at least twelve hours Mister Reed.” 

Was not till the doctor was gone again that Nine glared at him, ‘You should listen to him.’ Gavin rolled his eyes, “Nope, they will just keep poking and prodding and that shit gets old. I just need sleep in a real fucking bed.” 

There was a raised eyebrow on that, ‘Sleep you cannot achieve at your own apartment?’ Eh well that depended, not that Gavin could fucking read the clock on the other side of the room. Nine motioned for attention at answered that question, ‘Twelve seventeen.’ Ah well, then no likely Gavin would not get much sleep at home, even with the help of pain meds, whatever, would still be better than being here. “What are you doing here anyway, huh? Aren’t you supposed to have fucked off to wherever you go to sleep?” Gavin was blaming pain meds on his asking at all, though it was weird that this many weeks in and Gavin had no idea where Nine stayed. 

‘You have no emergency contact so the hospital contacted Captain Fowler, he dictated the responsibility to me.’ Eh, that was better than last time he was laid up and Fowler had sent fucking Anderson. Now that was a twist, rather have Nine standing guard than Anderson being his bitchy self. Ha. Had to be the pain meds fucking with him. 

The nurse came back, less chipper this time as she practically thrust the clipboard at him and started on freeing him from machines without saying a word. Wow she got moody fast. Gavin glanced over the normal bullshit before signing it and dropping it on the bed, trying to not wince at the nurse’s less than kind prodding. “You have an appointment in a week for a check-up to look at the stitches, do not skip it Mister Reed.” She almost threw the arm sling at him before scooping up the clipboard and storming out of the room. Gavin watched her go with some appreciation on how well she pulled a scary face. 

Getting dressed was going to be a bitch and a half, not that he had a shirt, likely the hospital had cut it off, they at least were kind enough to remove his jacket and pants. Saw Nine sign something but did not bother to focus on what he just said. If it was an offer for help then the leech could fuck off, Gavin could get dressed on his own thank you. Even if he wobbled for the tiny little bathroom a bit more unsteady like than he wanted. Ended up leaving on the stupid paper gown and just tucking it mostly into his pants, his jacket would help hide that he was wearing it till he got home. When Gavin made it out of the bathroom he almost ran into Nine.

Nine had moved at some point and was standing far too close, arm sling in hand and signing one handed, ‘Let me help.’ Gavin wanted to fight with him on it, this was breaking their rule of no touching. Then again after being picked up that rule was pretty well broken. There better not be any pictures floating around of that. With something of a huff he nodded, knowing better than to try to shrug and tried to work with getting the sling on. It fucking hurt, and he was pissed that it was his right arm, but hopefully it would only be a few weeks. Hopefully. 

His phone had thankfully been in his jacket pocket, it was almost dead but had enough of a charge to look up a taxi company and call, well he was pretty sure anyway. Except Nine stole the phone from his hand, ‘I have a car.’ He walked off, holding Gavin’s phone hostage, likely knowing that fact alone would pull Gavin into following. The fucker. 

Outside was bright and annoying and Gavin had not really dealt with the sun in over a month at this point, right now he was pretty much deciding that the sun was an evil bastard. Then again if he did not like the sun then Nine outright looked murderous with an edge of miserable as soon as they stepped outside. There was however a car waiting at the curb, cementing that Nine had one of those stupid fancy self driving cars, with blacked out windows because not like Nine needed to see out the windows with it being self driving. Nine almost blurred towards it, to leave Gavin to shuffle forward at his own pace, because for some reason walking hurt, which was bullshit really. Supposed he could not completely blame the vampire for wanting out of the sun, given that whole fact that he was a vampire. 

The car was fancier than anything Gavin would ever be able to afford, leather seats and fancy electronic crap that made no sense to him. He shifted trying to find a way to be comfortable before deciding it was an impossible task and instead just slumped and tried to not bitch. At some point he drifted off, back to blaming the pain meds for that, and got woken up with Nine’s shaking him. Really had just disregarded that whole no touching thing huh. He was slumped against the leech though, like full out leaning against him and alright maybe that was on him and the pain meds. “‘uck off.” Muttered as he straightened and grit his teeth from the pain, Nine gave a burst of air in something of a chuckle and it made Gavin want to kick him, except that would be too much work right now. 

“This is kidnapping.” Because this was not Gavin’s apartment, at all, this was a house, a very nice looking house in a very fancy neighborhood. Gavin turned to look at Nine and the leech did not even look bothered at the acquisition, only shrugged and replied almost lazily. ‘Went to your apartment first, birthday party in your hall, so packed you a bag.’ Oh shit, 303 had posted they were throwing some weekend bash thing for their twins, fucking hell. Nine popped the trunk and pulled out a familiar looking duffel bag and Gavin just did not have the energy to argue with him. “Still kidnapping.” But at least followed up the path and tried to not feel completely out of place, there were gardens and a fucking pond in the front yard. Tried to picture Nine gardening and completely failed, midnight gardening? Fucking weird. 

Then again never pictured Nine having cats either, and yet there were two of them at the door, clearly waiting and Gavin decided he just did not care right now to figure out how exactly this new side of the leech fit in with what little was known about him. “Bed?” Was the main thing he cared about, or a couch, whatever right now, but Nine frowned at him, ‘Should eat first.’ Yeah, no, sleep first, sleep always came first. “You even got food here leech?” There was a pause as Nine blinked and looked surprised at the question for some reason, ‘No.’ Ha, that meant that Gavin won, should mean he won, but still glared till Nine gave in and headed off for hopefully somewhere Gavin could crash for a while. 

It was a bedroom, a fancy ass bedroom with a desk and a little fish tank and blackout curtains which was amazing right now. Nine dropped the duffel on the floor and snapped to get attention, really Gavin wanted him to understand one day that he was not a damn dog. ‘I am going to bed, feel free to order delivery or use the shower if you are up before me.’ Gavin waved him off and plopped on the bed, already kicking of shoes, “Uh-hu, yep, bedtime.” Maybe it was the drugs or just how worn out he really was but the bed felt like a goddamn cloud and Gavin was going to marry it. It was decided. There was another huff of air that was supposed to be a laugh and Nine disappeared to fuck knows or cares where, maybe he had a bedroom in a basement dungeon or something. Whatever. 

All Gavin cared about right this moment was managing to get the stupid paper gown off, getting his belt undone so he could wiggle his pants off and somehow getting the cover at least half over him before passing out. He was pretty sure once he got real sleep he would do an angry freak out over everything, the whole being stabbed and kidnapped and somehow ending up in Nine’s house. Later though, later was after the chance to get real sleep for the first time in days. 

_________________________________________________

Later was more waking up starving and in pain and wanting to smother himself with a pillow because he felt like shit, grimy shit, so a shower would not go amiss either. Later meant fumbling for his glasses on a nightstand that was not there and then his brain reminding him that oh hey he was not home dipshit. Right. Kidnapped, kinda. Lazily kidnapped? That still counted, or it should. Gavin rubbed at his face and really hoped that Nine had tossed his glasses in the bag he packed, that would mean getting out of bed though. Because the duffel was way over there by the door. Sight though, and maybe he could find a shower, blood suckers had to have normal bathrooms, right? Fuck it, he was going to find out. 

His glasses did get packed, thank fuck for that, even if spare contacts somehow had not made the packing list, whatever it was fine enough. Carefully dug out a change of clothes and his toothbrush, wondered how it was the toothbrush got packed but not a hairbrush. Whatever. Was a problem for later, like after a shower and food. 

Took four doors to find a bathroom, because apparently the fancy house was a huge fucking house, found a library, an office and another bedroom before finding a bathroom. The bathroom was the size of his own bedroom. Fucking shit. Whatever. Fancy bathroom did not make showering any easier and Gavin ended up cursing most of the event. This point he was just lucky the shower did not spit out blood or something creepy. Still he did feel better after the fact, less gunky and like he smelled of hospital stench, now maybe do a hunt for food. Vaguely remembered that Nine had taken his phone and was thankful to find it plugged in on the kitchen counter, with a stack of delivery menus even. 

There were a few messages, mostly work related of course, a few from Tina checking in on him and he answered those first, after ordering a pizza, which was hard to do when someone had no idea where the fuck they were. Thankfully the pizza joint worked with him on it and gave him time to wander his ass outside to squint at a street sign and glance at the house number. Tina was fast to reply and they traded a few messages back and forth, Gavin conveniently just not telling her where he was. The knock at the door scared the bejesus out of him honestly and Gavin had to take a moment to calm his heart rate down before answering the door. 

“Hey, medium cheese and two liter of pepsi?” Gavin peered at the teenager, swore that delivery drivers were getting younger every year but passed over cash with an accepting grumble, back to starving now that he smelled food. “Man didn’t know there was anyone alive in this neighborhood, you recently mov-” Gavin shut the door in the kid’s face and turned back for the kitchen only to yelp and flinch back because Nine was standing right the fuck there. Flinching was a bad idea because holy shit it hurt and Nine ended up catching the pizza with a raised eyebrow and flat expression. “Don’t do that! You need a bell or something, shit.” Second time in less than five minutes Gavin felt like he was on the verge of a heart attack, fucking hell. 

Normally it was fine that Nine was all silent and ghostly, normally it was just fucking peachy because normally Gavin got to snort when other people had the crap scared out of them. Being on the receiving end sucked. Nine only took the pepsi from him and glided off for the kitchen and Gavin mimed shaking him, just for a second really, because sometimes it was tempting. Then took a breath, ignored the strain it put on his chest and followed in time to watch Nine pull out a plate and glass from a cabinet. Trying to be a good house host or something, Gavin was drawing a line when the leech flipped the pizza box open though. “Hey hey, nope, no dead people germs on my pizza.” Stole the box across the counter to protect it and waved the vampire off. Right now it was his life mission to eat the pizza, the entire pizza, if Nine wanted to stand there and judge then what the fuck ever, it was a great life goal right now. 

‘If you are feeling up to it we can check in at the station when you finish.’ Gavin wrinkled his nose at that, glanced at his phone while shoving a slice in his face and debated that. Yes technically he was going to be on desk duty for fuck only knew how long, Fowler had already passed that message, shoved between calling him stupid and telling him to rest. Buuuuuut it was not like the captain would be there right now to fuss about Gavin showing up the day after being stabbed. So gave a shrug that was pretty much a yes, Nine at least understood because he dipped his head into a nod and turned away. 

It was a bit past two in the morning right now, so likely Nine had been awake a while, but it was still interesting to watch him go about what was clearly a set routine. There were dishes on the floor that he checked, refilled the water bowl and then dug out a large canister of fish food before wandering off. Gavin had noticed the theme of fish tanks in almost every room he glanced in, weird really but he had seen weirder in people’s houses. Had to guess that neither cats or fish really cared if it was a human or a vampire caring for them. 

By the time Nine wandered back Gavin was trying to figure out if there was a trash can in the kitchen anywhere only to have the pizza box stolen from his hand and the vampire breezed out the back door. Had to guess there was a trashcan back there then, wait, vamps had like heightened sense of smell or something, right? Maybe? Would be a reason to not keep trash in the house at least. Gavin shrugged and went to go grab his jacket and shoes, jacket was slightly blood stained but fuck if he was going outside without it. 

Back in the kitchen Nine was clearly waiting for him, holding out Gavin’s phone for him, oh yeah would want that, alright. “So this is some weird vamp neighborhood then?” That was what the delivery guy had been starting to hint at anyway. Made sense he guessed, given sleep schedules, or that hey most the world still hated vampires and flat out just did not trust them. Gavin got that well enough. He worked with Nine, technically trusted him but still thought him creepy and just a bit too weird. Nine shrugged and replied with a single word, ‘Mostly.’ Short answers were the norm but it was still frustrating really, Gavin rolled his eyes and got in the car. “Mostly?” 

There was something like surprise before Nine wiped his expression clear, ‘Originally most of the neighborhood was owned by CyberLife.’ Well that made more sense, most the higher ups of CyberLife had fled during the uprising, most of the vampires had fallen in line with the idea of a peaceful change of things. Some of them had not and harbored some hate for the group that had held their leashes for so long. ‘With the evacuation and most people not coming back the housing market took a hit, so when vampires offered to start buying houses outright no one really wanted to argue.’ Eh yeah, alright, Gavin shrugged and slumped, wishing there was a way to sit without it hurting, needed to pick up pain pills, was lucky he had remembered to wiggle the stupid sling on. ‘You should move in, you are looking for somewhere better, I have the room.’ 

Gavin stared at Nine, waiting for the punchline because that had to be a joke, Nine however looked as untouched as he always did. Gavin looked away and hunched farther into the seat, wishing he could look out a window but the windows were tinted too dark for that. Nine shifted just loud enough to make a noise and Gavin glanced at him without really meaning to. ‘Think about it, we can negotiate rent.’ Right, because Gavin totally wanted to be a live-in blood bag, that sounded great. Nevermind he was well aware that Nine had a supplier for blood, or that the remains of CyberLife had started selling synthetic blood to try to maintain some type of profit. There were in fact very few crimes so far of any blood sucker attacking a human for a snack. Gavin at least shrugged in answer this time, not really wanting to think about it at all. The rest of the ride passed in silence. 

Out of anything he expected on walking into the station it was not Connor slamming him against a wall with a snarl twisting his face and red gleam to his eyes. Anderson was yelling but Gavin could not make out the words past the the sound of his own heartbeat thundering in his ears and his own pissed off growl. What the fuck. Tried to shove the vampire away but there was no give and he was down an arm to try to twist away, he had his gun but there was no way he had time to grab it. Connor was gone suddenly, flung to the side. For a second Gavin started to slide down the wall, had not even been fully aware that his feet had been off the floor. Nine caught him easily enough without even looking and Gavin was going to deny that he ended up clinging to the leech for any length of time. 

A heartbeat passed, then several more before Gavin could properly focus on what was going on. Connor was back on his feet, still looking so very inhuman and pissed, and Anderson was foolishly standing in his way. There was something of a conversation going on, a pathetic conversation at that, it was a bit lopsided really. Connor hissed words, throwing accusations, apparently of the mind that Gavin was somehow using Nine, which what the actual fuck? Nine tried to sign something with his free hand and that only set Connor off on another line about Nine not taking care of himself and he could do better. Somewhere Gavin remembered that Connor knew shit-all of signing, Nine could go proposing marriage and Connor would never fucking now. Which given he thought they were related or something was kind of fucked up, Connor should have maybe tried to make some effort of learning ASL. Damn. 

That was off topic. Gavin stood on his own power and took a breath, ignored the twinge that really was turning into a burning pain and again wished he had his pain meds because fucking ow. “Shut the fuck up already. I don’t give shit-all what your problem is, you don’t ever get to get the fuck in my face. You certainly have no fucking right to go yelling at Nine when you can’t be bothered to try to have a two sided conversation with him.” Likely not what he was supposed to go caring about, but it came out anyway and Gavin was pissed and sometime shit got away from him when pissed. “I’ve seen you do jack shit to worry about him before, too caught up in your own happy fucking bubble. So stay the fuck back, keep to your goddamn bubble and never so much as look at me again or I have your ass fired faster than you can growl.” 

The three of them were staring at him like he had been yelling, which he had not been, but Connor at least looked surprised and maybe a little guilty, eyes back to brown instead of red. Anderson huffed and turned back to Connor to pull him away without a word, likely well aware of how this looked. If Gavin really pushed it there was no doubt he could get Connor kicked out, leech snapping and attacking without being provoked, yeah Connor could go down hard for that. Nine however was looking at him like he never really seen him before. Gavin ignored that and went for his desk, wanting to sit the fuck down before he did a mini panic attack because holy shit he just snapped at a blood sucker. He just defended another leech from a leech. Haahaa, how was this life anymore? 

Nine tapped on his desk and Gavin glanced up, not too sure when he had put his head down on his desk. ‘That was foolish.’ There was something of a hysterical laugh that escaped him, just a syllable or two before Gavin cut it off, “Yeah, well, stupid shit is my jam.” That was so very, very true. Took a deep breath and regretted it as soon as he did it, but still sat up. “Okay, fuck it, already here, going to at least look into where things are on the case.” It might have already been passed to someone else, but fuck it he was already here. Nine at least seemed to agree, or at least not want to argue because he moved off for his own desk. 

It took almost ten minutes before Gavin could really focus on the screen to read the report of Mike Dawley being questioned, and realized it read weird, or rather his answers read wonky. Enough that Gavin clicked on the messenger that stayed forever open in the background and sent a link to the report with a question mark to Nine. Leaned back to wait for him to read though and reply, debating getting up for coffee but decided that would hurt too much. Nine replied fast enough, one word to confirm something Gavin had no clue on but had known something was wrong anyway. 

‘Thralled’ 

“So what, like compulsion? Weird vampire shit?” Asked out loud because that was a new word, new weird vampire shit, oh joy. Nine nodded and sent another message, ‘It makes sense, there was no reason for Claira to try to stop you, likely was trying to catch your eyes. Mister Dawley reports that he was told to go to the house, on that date and at that time even. I am assuming that if we look into the whereabouts of Claria she is likely gone, with the children.’ Gavin cursed low and heartfelt, why did vampires have to be so fucking complicated, this was supposed to be an easy shut case. Not some shit of a dude being used as a murder weapon so some crazy vampire lady could steal kids. 

Still he pulled up the number for Claira’s work, the IT department in the hospital and called it, really kind of hoping that Nine was wrong. “Good evening, this is Detective Reed, can I speak to a supervisor or manager?” Was told to hold and got elevator music in his ear before he could reply, so he leaned back in his chair and tried to relax his shoulder. 

“Thank you for holding, this is Kevin speaking, how can I help you?” 

“Evening, this is Detective Reed with the DPD, I was just following up on a case and wondering if Claria was in or when her next shift was.” 

There was a low sigh on that, “Claria? Uh, no, she called and outright quit yesterday, said she would pick up her last check sometime next week.” 

Gavin tried really hard to not outright curse on the phone, “Alright, thanks for the answer.” Hung up then cursed, did not have to explain to Nine, he likely heard it all perfectly clear. “We know what school the kids go to? Daycare? Anything?” Nine shook his head and reply via signing, ‘I put in a request for a warrant while you were on the phone.’ Which would do no good till daylight hours, because hey most people kept a schedule when the sun was in the sky. By then it would not do them any good because Gavin was going to get benched till he healed some, and likely Nine would get put on desk work because the public was not comfortable with a leech going out as a detective on his own. Fucking shit. Likely the case would get passed to Anderson and his psychotic blood sucker. Gavin at least updated the case file what with they figure out, knew Anderson would at least follow it to the end, he had a weak spot for kids. 

“Alright, I am going to head out before anyone else turns up to yell at me.” Really felt like he could sleep for a while longer, needed to hit up a pharmacy to drop off the prescription for his pain pills and antibiotics. Nine stood as well and Gavin blinked at him, “Yeah, no, I can take care of myself.” The level stare he got said otherwise, ‘You cannot drive.’ Yeah, he also had no car now to go driving, “So I can order one of those creepy self driving cabs.” Was uncanny how utterly unimpressed Nine could look with just the twitch of an eyebrow. ‘Or I can give you a ride to a pharmacy, and help you change the bandages, you still have a bag at my house.’ “You already managed to kidnap me once, not giving you a chance to try again.” 

“For fucks sake stop flirting!” The words were yelled and honestly Gavin had not even realized that Anderson and Connor had come back. Startled he turned to flip Anderson off, got to open his mouth to snap something only to have Nine grab him and start pulling him along. Which completely distracted him, “Hey! Seriously, I am a fucking adult, I can take care of myself damn it!” Nine clicked his tongue, clearly in disagreement and Gavin really wanted to know what happened to the no touching rule damn it. 

So of course he ended up back in the creepy car, trying to figure out how to cross his arms with a sling on and not looking at Nine no matter how many times he snapped or otherwise made a sound. Somehow should not have been surprised when Nine got fed up with it and reached over to physically turn his head and glare at him. “What?!”

‘I can take you to your apartment if you want.’ Oh now Nine would listen to him and take him home, ha, Gavin for a split second was annoyed that the leech was really going to make him say it. “Doesn’t fucking matter, you have a point, going to need help.” His toothbrush and shit was at the vamp’s house anyway. Nine looked terribly pleased and Gavin huffed at him, cocky stupid leech. 

The pharmacy was a fast stop really, took all of ten minutes for both prescriptions to be filled and Gavin mostly chalked that off to the fact it was a pharmacy right outside a mostly vampiric neighborhood. He tried hard to not look at the cooler of blood and instead wandered around to pick up coffee, a cheap coffee maker and snacks. Nine was more responsible and grabbed the actual first aid shit and some more real food for Gavin, as well as sugar and creamer for the coffee. Alright no one said Gavin was great at adulting, he got by and that was good enough really. Somehow they left with random shit like oreos, milk, mac and cheese and snicker bars. Gavin was pretty sure whatever scary vamp cred that Nine had was being lost so fucking fast. 

Got everything into the car and Gavin was already fighting with the pill bottle for the pain meds, two seconds from trying to use his teeth before it was plucked from him and easily opened by the one person in the car that could easily use both hands. Fucker. He would have gotten it, alright. “You really are determined to kidnap me.” There was a lack of accusement missing from his tone, making it something less waspish and something more amused. Nine shrugged and held out two pills and Gavin let it drop for now. Hell he did not even bring it up when they got back to Nine’s house, instead he muttered a goodnight and trudged off for the bedroom with the bed he still kind of wanted to marry. Did not care that it was hours before he would normally go to bed, he was tired and his head was almost floating as the pills kicked in, likely should have eaten something with them, oops. 

_______________________________________________

 

It got brought back the next day, middle of the day even, because Gavin woke up and shuffled for the kitchen still maybe half asleep, pill bottle in hand and wanting coffee and food before maybe trying to pass back out. Somehow he was more awake when he realized Nine was in the kitchen staring intently at a pot on the stove, box of mac and cheese in hand and there was coffee already made. Oh, hey maybe that was what woke him up, smell of coffee. Gavin was betting if he looked at the clock it was almost time for his next dose of antibiotics. Would think on it better in like fifteen minutes, after coffee. There was a mug sitting out already so he did not have to go hunting for it and Gavin was too happy to cuddle his coffee than question anything for the moment. 

By the time he could come up with words he had been staring at Nine for almost ten minutes, “Uh, Nine, seriously it’s not complicated. Get it to boil, dump the noodles in, cook till they are mushy, drain ‘em, dump in some milk and butter and the powder shit, stir and eat.” Had Nine ever cooked anything before though? Seriously? Huh, something to think about. Then again, why was he cooking now? Nine finally dumped the noodles into the pot with a little frown of concentration like there was a right or wrong way to do it and Gavin tried really hard to not laugh. 

Then his brain caught up a little more and Gavin straightened to blink in thought. Wait. Wait. “You seriously do want me to move in.” Huh. That was… creepy. It was creepy, but not as bad as he thought somehow. Nine hunched in on himself but did not turn around. Alright, Gavin could work through this, he could. Sure it was a little weird, vampires were fucking weird. This was Nine though, Nine was… alright still creepy but he tried to not be creepy at Gavin. Mostly. Sometimes. More like he did not try to be creepy at Gavin and that counted for something. Sure, whatever. 

Scratched at the stubble on his chin and tried to think it through. “Alright how about we can figure out rent and stuff and do like a trail run or something. Like a month to see if we murder each other.” Nevermind that if it came to that it would be Gavin dead at the end, really he had done stupider things. He was sure of it. Nine finally slowly turned to narrow his eyes at Gavin and Gavin just shrugged. “I live in a really shitty, loud apartment, you haven’t killed me yet, I want to marry the bed and maybe have the shower as a mistress.” It was a great shower, there was no wait for hot water, far as he could tell there was limitless hot water, and it could literally shoot blasts of water from the fucking walls. “Plus that little black puffy cat is great, I want to steal her.” She was a great foot warmer, and his feet were always fucking freezing. 

‘No stealing my cat.’ Alright fair enough, Gavin gave a one shouldered shrug on that but made no promises. Really she was an adorable little fluff ball and he always had wanted a cat, his apartment just did not allow them. So hey maybe this could work out, no more getting woken up in the morning from people getting ready for work, or after school from kids getting home. Could totally marry the bed. Nine was, well Nine was Nine, a leech but not so bad over all. They had some things to work out, he needed to explain why Connor was up in his business and thinking Gavin was using him or whatever. But seriously things were pretty okay, minus the whole being stabbed thing of course, that sucked. 

Nine turned back to the stove to watch it like it was going to do something to offend him and Gavin shook his head and propped his elbow on the counter top to watch him. Was pretty damned sure the leech had never cooked a day in his existence, and this was kind of amazing. From the look of horror on Nine seeing the powdered cheese mix shit to his outright signing that never again was mac and cheese allowed in the house. Really was not like he was going to eat it, gesh, they could argue over the merits of mac and cheese later though, it seemed like they had time.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As per normal, not proof read, contractions are evil, yadayada, my normal really. Enjoy?

“Who the fuck are you?!” The lady at the door looked outraged and Gavin did not have the fucks to give her, mostly because they were at the back door and she had been basically trying to break in. “Where’s Nine?” That was hissed and brown eyes were quickly slipping red. Gavin stepped back and closed the door in her face only to smirk at her outraged yell, hey that was kind of fun, maybe there was something to leeches having to be invited, neat fact to learn on the fly. It was somewhere around four-thirty in the afternoon, by Gavin’s phone that meant about an hour before sunset and how the fuck was this his life that he was keeping track of sunset and sunrise. Ugh. Was blaming Nine for that shit, had no other reason to care about the fucking sun. 

The lady beat at the door and he seriously wondered how it would look if he called this in, crazy leech trying to break in, then decided that he would never live it down, never. Opened the door again and peered at her, “There’s these things called phones.” Just to point out, because that might have gone over better than her just showing up and trying to wander in the fucking back door. She crossed her arms and glared at him, chin tilted and nose turned up, one of those blood suckers that hated humans, oh yeah, she had that look, fucking bitch. “Clearly you ain’t welcome here sweetheart.” Wrong thing to saw as she lashed out, a blur of movement that had Gavin flinching back first, then clutching at his chest as he tried to not curl over because fuck that hurt. 

“He can’t answer the fucking phone!” Got to watch her hit the space in front of the doorway and the air vibrated, he felt it in his teeth, no fancy lights or anything but there was something solid keeping her from passing the door frame. Gavin likely would think it more amusing if not for the fact he fucking hurt, was between doses because kind of hard to keep on top of that when asleep. He had debated possibly rearranging his sleep schedule but that would just damn him in the end, best stay on the nocturnal shift, just meant his first hour or so awake fucking sucked. And that was without crazy broads at the back door like a deranged doberman. Nah, that was an insult to dobermans, she was too crazy. 

Gavin rubbed at the stitches and leveled his best glare at her, “Never heard of texting? Your fingers broken?” Shit did anyone ever try to fucking talk to Nine instead of talking at him? Sure he got it, leeches were still figuring out shit, some of them were slower than others though clearly. His words at least seemed to sink into her head though because she paused a second with that look of ‘oh shit’, like she never fucking thought about it. “Look lady, don’t know who you are, don’t care who you are. Pick up your phone next time, Nine stepped out last night.” He turned away from the open door to grab for his bowl of cereal, because hey no reason to pause his breakfast because of the crazy lady, this was the best entertainment he had since, well since Nine left yesterday. 

Crazy lady really deflated on that, “He promised to go to the meeting tonight.” She was not helping her craziness but she at least looked less like she wanted to try to rip out his throat, so step in the right direction. “Nine even have a phone?” The fact she asked that made him stare at her, spoon hanging out of his mouth. Very casually kicked the door closed again and shook his head, did everyone Nine know just happened to be stupid, missing two brain cells to rub together maybe? Had to be, was really starting to feel for the guy on that, gesh. Wandered back to the counter to finish eating and maybe the lady wandered off, maybe not, but she was quiet so that was all that mattered. 

Was tempted to go sneak into work, technically he was allowed back tomorrow, on fucking desk duty till he could at least draw a full breath without cringing. Desk duty sucked but he would take it right now, over this boredom crap, with nothing to really do but wander around, stare at fish and poke cats. Had already explored the entire first floor of the house, mutual agreement had him avoiding the second floor as being Nine’s domain. Apparently the leech did not have some creepy dungeon basement bedroom but the master suite upstairs, oddly made Nine more normal really. The last couple of days had mostly been teaching Nine the joy of console gaming or widening the vamp’s knowledge of movies. Otherwise Gavin had a whole lot of nothing to do and he was going crazy. 

Sound from the front of the house had Gavin tilting his head, wondering if it was the crazy lady, a cat breaking something or Nine getting back. Really any of them were equally possible, the tabby was a walking disaster of cat-teenagehood, there was a reason why Gavin like the little black fluff ball one. Maybe he really needed to find out their names at some point, huh. Answer came with Nine gliding into the kitchen a few moments later. “Hey, there was a crazy lady here for you, tried to break in the back door.” Just to toss out there all super casual, if only because Nine paused and blinked at him surprised and that happened so rarely. The vamp slid his eyes over to said back door then back to Gavin again with a raised eyebrow, not even needing to sign anything to get his question across. “No clue, she didn’t drop a name.” 

Nine seemed to let it go easily enough and dropped a file on the counter, the DPD logo across it had Gavin pulling it closer, “Oh you fucker, you went in without me.” Dropped his spoon in what was mostly just milk as this point to shove the bowl aside and flip open the file. It was a print out update of what was going on with the Dawley case, not at all supposed to be printed off and taken anywhere but fuck if Gavin would say anything. “Wait the smallest one was dropped at her aunt’s?” Gavin sat up and regretted it but holy shit, what? Spread the pages out and glanced over the call logs and interviews, sure as shit Susan Dawley called to report Rebecca was left on her front porch. All bundled up and with some fucking McDonald's in hand like it was a normal visit, minus that whole the kid’s mother was murdered and she got kidnapped by a blood sucker for a day and a half. 

Nine tapped on the counter for attention and it took some willpower for Gavin to pull his attention from reading what was in front of him, ‘Nothing has been heard on the son, his school and medical records are being sent over tomorrow. I talked Fowler into letting us stay on the case.’ Gavin stared at him a moment, because what? ‘You have to take it easy, no doing reckless acts, and we have to take backup on any calls.’ Nine who never bothered to so much as turn his nose up at other people went and somehow bullied Fowler into keeping them on the case? How did that conversation even go? Why the fuck would Nine bother? 

“Uh, thanks?” Was not too sure what else to say on that honestly, not without launching into a line of questions that Gavin was not too sure he wanted the answers to. It kept seeming like the more the learned the less shit made sense. Nine shrugged off the thanks and set out to his normal morning tasks, er night tasks. Gavin had offered to help with some of the house chores, dishes and stuff like that, after all he was the only one in the house that ate, made sense. Some things though Nine liked to do himself, like every single day, it was kind of weird to realize that leeches could have something like OCD. Kind of made sense though, having watched Connor and his weird counting thing he had going on. A snap and Gavin grumbled but gathered up the file so Nine could wipe down the counter top, scooted the bar stool back to balance it on his lap instead. 

Another snap and Gavin looked up with a frown. ‘There is a dining room.’ That had Gavin wrinkling his nose, there was a dining room, it was huge and fancy and weird, it was a formal dining room that Gavin avoided. The kitchen was just fine. Whoever had lived here before had a stick up their ass and too much money, who the hell needed a formal dining room? Nine let it go at least and instead moved on, ‘Did you feed the fish?’ Like somehow Gavin could possible forget the aquarium in his bedroom when it took up half a wall, gave a mutter he did not really pay attention to that was maybe an answer, attention already turned back to the papers on his lap. 

What the hell would a leech go through all this to kidnap a kid? At what point had it turned into some sick game for the leech? It made no sense. By everything on paper the vamp had been with the dead lady since before the uprising, gotten shortly after Sarah and Mike Dawley had split. Likely because Sarah worked full time and had two kids and needed help. Something had to have happened, the leech, Claria, had either never left or gone back after the uprising. Lived some happy little life these last few months a free little leech and then this. Get the ex to murder his wife and take off with both kids, only to turn around and drop one off safe and sound. Made no damn sense. Flipped through everything printed and reread everything like something would jump at him, like it would all just click in place somehow. 

So when the file was pulled away Gavin honestly growled rather automatically, angry in a second, only to blink at Nine the next second because the stupid vampire looked terribly amused at him. “Yeah yeah.” Okay maybe he had gotten a little absorbed, he was bored and had been for days now, he was not good at just sitting around on his ass doing nothing. ‘There is an HOA meeting tonight.’ That got a blank stare from Gavin, because uh what? What did that have to do with…. him? Oh hell no. “Nope, no way that is happening, not a homeowner, you are, I just happened to be here is all.” Rather just sit here on his ass in fact. Nine stared at him like he was the one being stupid somehow here, because strolling into meeting with a bunch of stuffy vamps sounded like a great idea. What did they even talk about? The height of someone’s grass? How long it was socially acceptable to leave someone dead in the front yard? Well this would be the meeting the crazy lady had mentioned at least, one tiny little mystery solved. 

Two hours later he was trying to talk himself into strolling into a HOA meeting, with Nine standing to the side looking terribly bored, open cup of blood in hand like it was coffee. This was stupid, so stupid, he was stupid. Somehow Nine had not even talked him into this, Gavin had done it all on his own, like an idiot. Sure it would be better if he at least knew the leeches by sight that lived around, and maybe for them to realize that hey a squishy human was around. They were in the entrance hall to the club house, the neighborhood had a clubhouse, fancy fuckers, and Gavin was realizing how very outnumbered he was going to be because there were two different types of blood and no fucking coffee. Nine was watching him like he was doing something interesting, more than standing there with arms crossed and muttering to himself that he was an idiot and wondering when he last updated his will, did he even have a will? Huh, should look into that. 

Said something that Nine only had to tap on his stupid styrofoam cup to get Gavin’s attention, signed out with one hand, which really was more a challenge than it sounded, signing was not meant to be done with one hand. ‘No one will touch you, and they already know you are here.’ He just had to point out that last bit, still Gavin deflated a little, creepy ass vampires and their weirdness of knowing shit, for all he knew they heard or smelled him or something. Fuck he had no idea. Fine, fine, he was here already, so moved down the hall and slipped into the open door and ignored anyone that so much as glanced his way. No one did. 

Instead there was the crazy lady suddenly there, latching onto Nine like she had every right and Gavin had to bite his tongue to not snap at her, was none of his business who Nine let go manhandling him. Leech-handling? Whatever. Gavin tried to slink off to grab a chair and Nine gave a little ‘pfft’ of air that stopped him and this was the first time ever that Gavin got to see Nine look less than collected. Yet there he stood, looking a little like he needed to be saved and Gavin debated still walking off a moment before he decided fuck it, in for a penny in for a pound. “Hey, long time no see.” Crazy lady stopped mid word to glance at him, surprised before she narrowed eyes, “What are you doing here?” Oh yeah, she totally hated humans, this was great, so Gavin slid a smirk on his face because if he was good at anything, it was pissing people off. 

“Aww, would’ve thought you figured that bit out earlier, really not graced with a brain to go with the whole undead thing huh?” Sometimes his mouth really did get away from him, but she at least let Nine go to take a step towards him instead, was sort of a win. Someone else stepped in smoothly and pulled her back, “North! Josh was looking for you, just now, seemed urgent, can you check on that please?” Even spun her towards the door and gave a little push and the moment was defused just that easily, she glanced back but still tossed her hair over her shoulder and strode off like it was her own idea. And now there was a different blood sucker, but this one at least kept his hands to himself and Nine did not look ready to either run or snap, steps in the right direction. And as a great plus Gavin still had all his bits attached firmly to him, even better. 

There was a moment pause, an awkward pause before the new blood sucker glanced between Nine and Gavin, “Sorry about her, North sometimes can be hard to handle.” Putting it lightly really, and Gavin tried really hard to not outright snort. “You must be Gavin though, it is nice to meet you.” And the leech offered out a hand like this was just normal or something and Gavin was the idiot that automatically took it. Another pause, even from the blond guy, like no one was really sure what happened. Even Nine blinked and stared at Gavin before flicking his attention down to clasped hands. Welp, this got more awkward. “Uh, I’m Simon?” It came out as a question really, but they at least separated and oddly Simon took a small shuffling step away from Nine. Gavin tried to be nonchalant about wiping his hand on his pant’s leg, okay now he knew leeches did not feel like dead people, but there was still nothing human about it and it was creepy. 

Everything was adding up though, and Gavin really wished he had just stayed home, uh, at Nine’s house, whatever, he was living there, it was home. “Wait, wait.” Sure this whole situation had gone weird, knew that when it was an HOA meeting with a bunch of vampires, but this, oh this was icing on the cake. Simon at least had the grace to look embarrassed and that pretty much confirmed it really. Holy shit. Holy fucking shit. Crazy lady too, North. Gavin turned attention to Nine, and for a rare time signed at him instead of vocalizing, ignoring that he was out of practice at doing more than ‘reading’ gestures. ‘When the fuck were you going to tell me you lived in a rich ass neighborhood with the fucking leaders of your crazy cult?!’ And yes yelling could totally be conveyed in ASL. Nine raised a single eyebrow at him, that was it, just that one reaction and that was telling enough, on so many levels. 

There was a choked laugh from Simon and that would be the luck of the moment, that there was someone that finally knew signing. “We prefer not to be thought of as a cult, if that helps?” Gavin took a breath and held it a second, “Right, of course not.” Left it at that because anything else he would say would be stupid and cutting. Simon took back over with a soft smile, “Well the meeting is going to be starting in a few minutes, it was nice to meet you Gavin, and I am happy you came for once Nine.” He backed away smoothly and left so that Gavin could continue staring at Nine like somehow this was all his fault, because it was, it really, really was. Gavin grabbed Nine’s sleeve and tugged him towards chairs, determined they were sitting in the fucking back of the room. “We are so talking about this.” Hissed words, because he caught that hint that Nine normally was not a face that showed up. 

______________________________________________

 

It was nice being back at work after too many days of doing nothing, yeah sure the first day or so of sitting about with a cat and unlimited movie choices had been okay. A chance to catch up on sleep and settle in to living somewhere different. After that it had been torture because sitting around the house also meant sitting around with Nine because apparently the vamp has zero social life, which in hindsight was not that surprising. Watching Nine go around and bleach everything had only been amusing the first couple of times, after that Gavin really had to wonder how the fuck the leech went through life not wearing gloves and a mask. Might explain his lack of wanting to touch pretty much anything, or obsession with hand sanitizer. A germaphobic blood sucker, it was kind of a funny thought really. 

But anyway, work, it was good to be back, even if Fowler had sat him down and ranted at him that if he so much as thought of stepping out the door to sneeze without another office on his heels his ass would be stuck organizing the archive room till the sun exploded. Which was pretty much to be expected, annoying as fuck, but expected, could have been way worse, and still had to wonder what exactly Nine did or said to keep them off desk duty. Typing was a bitch and a half, because if he so much as twitched like he might shrug out of the arm sling Nine was suddenly just glaring at him, even from across the room. He had a heavy glare, icy and downright creepy, Gavin was pretty sure the ass did not even blink sometimes. So yeah, typing was a bitch and he had moved his mouse to the left hand side and that was another whole new nightmare. 

“You can change the settings for the mouse.” 

One day Gavin was going to have a heart attack, he swore to whatever deity was listening that some fucking leech was going to give him a heart attack and he would find a way to come back and kill them for it. Unclenched his teeth and let his death grip on said mentioned mouse go, pretty sure the plastic gave a groan, then bothered to turn just enough to verify that yes that was Connor standing there. It was. “What. The fuck. Do you want?” Other than trying to put Gavin in an early grave, hey this was a new method to attempt, much better than the whole hand around his neck thing at least. The leech tried to look guilty and missed by a mile, instead he looked more like a dumbass than normal. 

“Well, I was pointing out that you can change the settings for the mouse, tell the computer that you had to flip sides, like for left handed people.” He offered forward like he was actually being insightful and helpful, standing there with a smile and expecting some sort of thanks. Gavin still had bruises around his neck and this fucktard wanted to come be helpful and flash stupid dimples like everything was just fucking peachy. Right. Of course. Because apparently that was just how shit went, everyone threw themselves into the Connor fan group and that was that. Bull-fucking-shit. 

Gavin leaned back in his chair, computer ignored for the moment. “Alright, for just a moment let’s pretend we can talk halfway civil like, you know like people.” That was a dig and he knew it but whatever, his version of civil never matched anyone elses. “I do know how to fucking use a computer, already switched the mouse orientation over, use to in fact be left handed. So drop the trying to be best buds and tell me what the fuck you want.” Likely was not common knowledge anymore, but if Connor brought it up to Anderson then it would at least be confirmed, both Gavin not being computer stupid and the whole having to be semi ambidextrous. Having his wrist pieced back together with surgical steel and titanium made more minuet gestures a pain in the ass. Like dealing with computer mice, or signing for that matter. 

Connor’s face blanked out in that fucked up creepy way that vampires could pull, like no one was home for a moment before he blinked and came back. Gavin shifted just enough he could stand in a single action if he needed to, just in case, feet flat on the floor and leaning forward slightly. “I want you to teach me how to sign.” Flat tone and a shrug, just put out there with nothing else, no trying to be convincing or asking for a favor. 

There was a moment that Gavin stared at him, sure he had misunderstood something there, “Uh, what? No wait, don’t answer that.” Because the fucker totally would just repeat himself like a moron. Connor shifted just slightly, ducking his head and tugged at his sleeves, a useless gesture really, something to look more human, maybe practiced so many times it was in fact becoming automatic. “Why the fuck do you think I would want to help you with anything?” Because that right there was insanity, utter insanity, Gavin maybe had done some stupid shit the last week or so but he was drawing a line, here and now. 

“You brought up a good point the other day, I haven’t tried to reach out like I should. Nine is basically a brother to me and I never even considered trying to meet him halfway.” Connor dropped his tone, like he really was ashamed or something and Gavin was pretty sure at least some of that was an act. “I picked up some books on the basics, but even they suggest having a tutor, Hank said you are the only one in the precinct that knows sign language.” A shrug and he peered back up, brown eyes wide and deep, making Gavin look away because nope, that was something he at least knew about leeches. Fuck that eye contact thing when they wanted something. 

Looking away let him watch the dark shadow cut across the floor as Nine approached silently, moving past people without them even realizing he was there. Creepy, but utterly Nine at the same time. He came up on Connor’s side and set down a coffee cup, steaming and smelling like heaven, what was more telling was that Connor flinched back, clearly surprised. Huh, so Nine was quiet enough to sneak up on other vamps, good to know. Better yet he completely ignored Connor to instead give some of the best news, ‘Got in a tip for Claria’s location, nest safe house, if you can find someone to bring I have the address.’ Fuck yes, a reason to get out of the station. “Shit, who is even here to drag along?” The down side to night shift suddenly, mostly it was patrols and limited office work, the few that were in the bullpen were on phones and shit like that. 

Knew it the split second before Connor smiled all bright and self satisfied, “Me.” 

“Oh fuck no.” Raised a finger at him to accent his point, “I will take the fucking receptionist first.” Which was saying something because that was still a leech on the night shift, she was one of the few that came back, brunette and cold. Honestly Gavin did not even know her name, some of them all looked the same, most of them in fact all looked the same, joy of genetic engineering, why bother coming up with new twists in the coding when could just make them all the same. Even Nine however looked disbelieving, because yeah okay technically it did need to be another cop, not the receptionist, alright he knew that. “Where the fuck is Anderson?” He was supposed to babysit the leech, right? 

“He has a meeting tomorrow morning so he had to take tonight off.” Connor sounded far too chipper about this, but Nine looked bored, that was more telling.

Fuck it, Gavin sighed and gave up, apparently once he gave in once to signing he was just stuck with it, ‘You okay if this,’ A pause because there was not a word really designated for what he wanted to say, if this whole signing conversations thing kept up they needed to start making signs for things like names and curses, ‘fucknut tags along?’ The look of being utterly unimpressed at the creative way of mashing words to make up curses from Nine was totally worth it for a moment. Still he tilted his head in acceptance, even if he did not outright answer, clearly not pleased but not arguing either. 

For his part Connor looked interested in whatever was going on but at least kept his mouth shut while Gavin sighed and stood, patting himself down to make sure he had his keys and badge. Was having to borrow a precinct car for the time being, which sucked but he refused to get driven around in the fancy ass self-driving plastic shit that Nine owned. Pulled his service pistol out of a drawer and slid it in place before bothering to glare at Connor. “Alright, look you’re coming, but shut the fuck up and remember this is not your case.” Likely was asking for the impossible on that, and given the sharp, “Of course detective.” he knew he was right, fucking hell. Maybe he should have just stuck to desk duty instead of dealing with this shit. Shook his head and headed off, not bothering to say anything else on that, passed the keys over to Nine because he was not driving if he could help it, and Nine knew where they were going. 

Of all the things to think might be awkward, seating arrangements somehow took the cake, getting everyone in the car was like trying to herd cats. Apparently Nine did not want Connor behind him, but did not want Gavin in the backseat, or for that matter Connor sitting next to or behind Gavin. It took far too long in the cold before Gavin pried the keys from Nine and threw them at Connor’s face. Problem fucking solved. Shoved Nine towards the back and rounded the car to slide himself through the passenger side back door. Seriously this was fucking ridiculous, because then Nine had to sign directions at Gavin and he had to pass them to Connor and this whole situation was just surreal. It was fucking stupid is what it was. No wonder everyone called them brothers, they fucking acted like it around each other, it said something when Gavin was the mature one in the group. 

By the time they got where they were going Gavin just wanted out of the car, if that meant walking into a whatever the fuck a nest was, then so fucking be it at this point. None of the leeches in the weird ass house could be anymore annoying then the ones he just spent time trapped in a car with. Both vampires hung back when Gavin approached the door, a good like five feet between them and Gavin took a steading breath before knocking. Really should have just ignored Fowler’s demands, except he knew for a fact that the threat given was a real one. Maybe he would just ignore both the idiots behind him. 

The door opened a bare three inches, chain keeping it from opening farther, “Yes?” It was a soft voice, careful and low to go with mild features. Vamps were just universally attractive, it was a thing that Gavin barely even noticed anymore. He pulled out his badge and angled it to be easily seen, “Evening,” How the fuck was he supposed to go about this shit, “We got a tip that someone we are looking for might have come here and were hoping to ask some questions.” Was something without outright saying they were looking to arrest a leech. The person on the other side of the door was silent a moment before the door closed and Gavin could hear the chain being undone. Just another second and the door opened again, not much wider, enough to see it was a guy on the other wise, pale and twitchy. “Can I see your badge and ID?” Still sounded skittish, head kept down and looking more at Gavin’s shoes than anything. 

Not a normal question but not outside the range of acceptable, so Gavin pulled the police issued ID card that did not go giving away shit like his address. The guy glanced up and peered at both, eyes narrowed before glancing past him and flinching in on himself, almost like he expected to be hit. Gavin blinked and glanced behind him, not too sure what he would find, but both Nine and Connor were just standing there, not doing anything. “You can come in, but the hunter’s are not welcome here.” Right, that nonsense, of course, Gavin shoved his badge and ID in the same pocket for now and exhaled a sigh. “Uh, at least one of them has to come with me.” Skittish guy looked ready to cry honestly, Gavin almost felt bad for him really, which was just pathetic. 

“Stay here, I’ll get the master.” And the door closed without Gavin having time to say anything, like possibly ask what the fuck that meant. Instead he glanced back at both vamps behind him, “What?” Nine tilted his head but looked at Connor, clearly expecting him to jump into answering, which was exactly what happened without a pause. “Nest master, would be whatever vampire is in charge, typically someone older with better control to keep order in the nest.” Right, great. Connor kept going, clearly happy to be able to offer forward some type of knowledge. “Nests are really like small courts, the master is completely in charge of the nest and has final say on anything that can affect the nest.” Like letting in two hunters, because apparently letting in a detective was just fine, but hunters were a different story. 

Sure Gavin got that there was some bad history, hard to forgive someone that had been in charge of slaughtering you, but he thought there was supposed to be some dividing line there. What what he gathered anyway. With the whole whatever happened before slipping CyberLife’s leash was firmly in the past and ignored, clearly that did not count for hunters. 

The door opened again and hey maybe it was a good thing that Gavin could not have brought the receptionist because here was her splitting twin, almost, slight differences but that was it. So at least Gavin knew she was not meant to be a fighter, not that it changed much, blood suckers were still stronger and faster than humans no matter what they originally had been designed for, engineered for. Whatever the correct terminology was. What was telling was that Connor flinched back a step, Gavin heard it without having to look, but he ignored it and instead focused on the blood sucker in front of him. 

She glanced over them, hesitating only a moment before giving a careful smile, close mouthed, like she was use to hiding fangs, “I see why everyone is panicking now, good evening Detective Reed, Connor, Nine.” She nodded her head at each of them and oh goodie she knew everyone, what joy. “If I asked for a promise of nonviolence would you each give it?” Making promises to strange vampires, sounded like a great idea. 

“How about I just ask you some questions then, you are the one in charge here, right?” Would be better than walking into the leech house anyway, right? Right. Except Connor stepped forward and put a hand on Gavin’s shoulder and did they not have a conversation about not fucking touching him? “It’s fine, I can make that promise Chloe.” Gavin tried to take a step to the side and Connor tightened his hold and there was the first wiggle of panic in his brain. 

Nine fucking knew, because somehow Nine always knew everything and casually as could be pulled Gavin back, batting away Connor’s touch like it was an annoying fly. Managed to make the whole action look normal, natrual even, getting Gavin’s attention so he could sign out something. ‘You can stay out here if you prefer.’ That was it, just a casual offer for Gavin to bow out of things without drawing attention to that moment that Gavin really wanted to lash out. Except he knew how that would go, didn’t he? Connor could lay him out in two seconds flat. Gavin took a second to collect himself, only a second because anything longer and everyone else would noticed, if they did not already, fucking vampires. 

“Okay, whatever, nonviolence, just here to ask some questions anyway.” Leeches just had to make everything complicated though, nothing could be straight forward, of course not. Glanced at the woman, leech, in the doorway, Chloe, and she smiled again before stepping to the side, “Then please do come in.” Gavin shoved past Connor, just wanting this shit over with already, faster this was done the faster they could ditch Connor. 

Had expected, shit he had no idea, gothic decor and blood stains maybe? Instead the living room was done in soft grey and green and there were five other vamps sitting around on couches and armchairs watching. They were all just a little too still, a little too perfect. There was a shuffled thud behind him and Gavin jumped slightly but then Nine was standing at his side and there was just Connor a step behind straightening his sleeves and running a hand down his dress shirt. Almost wanted to ask, but could mostly guess. Nine really did get bitchy when it came to other leeches doing much of anything around Gavin, it was weird and over protective and Gavin had tried to arguing it once and got nowhere. So whatever. 

“Any grand ideas?” Because if they had to question every vamp Gavin was going to fucking hit something. Glanced at Chloe again, “Do you know everyone in your, uh, nest?” Like they were birds or something, great big blood drinking birds, or would that make them bats? Yeah maybe the pain meds made him a little less focused than he should be. She shook her head and answered easily enough, no dancing around and trying to be mysterious at least. “Only if they introduce themselves or stay more than a couple of days. I have people passing through constantly, this is meant to be a safe house detective, for anyone needing time among their own kind, needing a meal or just somewhere to rest for a while.” Right, that was just great, and not helpful at all. 

“Does the name Claira ring any bells? Five foot eleven, dark brown hair, green eyes.” Chloe again shook her head because nothing could ever be that easy, so Gavin glanced back across the room, pretty sure they were all listening in. “Anyone?” There had to be someone that called in the tip, he was betting someone in the house, nest, whatever it was. Maybe just too afraid to speak up because they were not expecting two hunters to stroll in. 

There was a soft snap from Nine and Gavin spared him a glance only for Nine to point towards the stairs just in sight, which was something, but not something that Gavin knew what to do with. Then someone drifted down the stairs, already speaking up to draw attention to them, “I know her.” Great, getting somewhere at least. “She left almost as soon as the sun set, but she left a few things.” Of course she left, nothing could ever go that smoothly, and Gavin grit his teeth before deciding fuck it and going to cross the living room. If someone jumped up he was not going to be responsible for his actions. The room as a whole pretty much just tracked his path silently but that was it and whatever, that was creepy as fuck but fine at this point. 

“Do you know when she showed up or if she mentioned a kid, uh teenager?” Was technically a teenager, barely, they were all kids to Gavin if they were under 21 honestly. The vampire watched him unblinking a long moment and the seconds dragged before they nodded, “That was why I called.” Well great, maybe they were getting somewhere, maybe. Gavin paused to see if maybe anything else would be added, details at all, but no, that was it. He really could hit someone the way this was going. “Alright, look I get things are weird, I do, but we are trying to sort out murder and kidnapping, so if maybe you could stop playing games and just be straight it would be great.” Because he did not have the patience for mind games and some leech trying to be all mysterious and shit, he got that enough already thanks. 

The vampire finally, finally, blinked and some life seemed to build in their eyes, “Oh, of course, sorry, I don’t deal with humans very often.” Like that was an excuse on how to not fucking talk to someone, or fuck maybe it was, hell if Gavin knew. Maybe they had some weird like intermind thing they could do. Fuck could they do weird mind shit? That really could explain some things if so, and added to the creep factor. Would try to mentally sort that out later, leech was talking again, turning around on the stairs to head back up. “Let me you show you where she stayed, she did not leave much, change of clothes and a couple books.” Somehow it was a hundred times worse when other vampires did that thing of moving without making sound, something he was used to with Nines was suddenly not at all okay. 

Still maybe they were getting somewhere finally go Gavin went up the stairs, amused to note that Connor still clicked his stupid shoes on the stairs, nevermind he was in a house full of blood suckers. “What exactly did Claria mention about the kid?” That was the key point they were on this after all, murder was bad, kidnapping teenagers was somehow worse though, even Gavin stood by that. The vamp ahead of him hummed, honestly hummed, like they were debating their answer before coming to stop at an open door. “She has come here before, just a night or so here and there, but always spoke so fondly of her family, spoke of love and warmth.” They motioned for Gavin to go ahead and he paused, not terribly sure he wanted to without knowing what was in the room. There was a flicker of emotion that passed over the vamp before they shrugged and stepped into the room, “This time she was shaken, kept saying that she had done something she regretted. She slept here.” The last bit was tacked on almost randomly, catching Gavin off guard. 

The room was set up with bunk beds and dividers to cut the room into little sections, cramped but with the illusion of privacy, signs that showed a few of the residences were more long term staying. The area motioned was a lower bunk, curtain half drawn back, a mess of clothes and papers across the bed. Gavin pulled his phone to take pictures of everything before touching anything, there was the awkward moment of trying to figure out the logistics of things. Did not want to put his phone away, but he only had one arm functioning at the moment, this whole shit was frustrating as fuck, really was hating the arm sling. Nine snatched the phone from him and Gavin shot him a look because seriously he would have thought about that in a moment. Still grumbled a ‘thanks’ before picking up the top few sheets to glare at. 

It was all gibberish to him really, got enough to know it was medical bullshit but that was about it, tilted the papers for Nine and he furrowed his brows and they ended up trading off, phone for papers. Hey if Nine could make heads or tails of it then good for him. Whatever grand reveal it was however was held off on for the time being, instead they gathered the rest of the papers and the couple of books. Left word to fucking call if she showed back up and left, simple as that. No more weird drama, no one jumping forward in anger or revenge. 

Gavin did not realize how on edge he had been till they were all back in the car and Connor pulled away from the curb and it all sunk in. He had just waltzed into a fucking vampire nest house and gotten bitchy at said vamps. He was just doing stupid shit after more stupid shit lately. It could be argued that he had back up, two vampires that were supposed to be on his side, but he trusted Connor as far as he could kick the fucker. No offense against Nine, but house full of leeches against a single leech was not really a contest at all. 

Which meant he trusted Nine to have his back. 

It was a suddenly realization that made him feel like an idiot. He moved into the vamp’s house after all, that took a fuck ton of trust. Gavin knew that, he did, but it still just kind of smacked him in the face. He trusted Nine to take his side when dealing with other vampires. Holy shit. Was more to it than that, a lot more to it, if that was all it was then they would just work together okay and that would be that. Instead the last week they had almost spent every waking moment together and somehow Gavin had not even noticed. There was the one night that had Nine had gone out and what had Gavin done but mope about like some dramatic teenager being ignored by his crush and oh holy fuck no. No. Nonono. 

“Are you alright Detective, your heart rate has increased.” Connor’s annoying voice had Gavin gritting his teeth and pinching at the bridge of his nose, did not need it pointed out his little mini freak out was that easily noticed. “Keep your attention on the goddamn road.” Ground the words out and refused to glance at Nine, not that it mattered since the other leech practically had his nose buried in the papers they had picked up. The rest of the ride passed in silence, thankfully and Gavin tried to not beat his head against the window in the realization that he really was stupid. Fucking stupid, maybe being stabbed had deprived his brain of blood and he just lost all sense of common sense. Had to be something. 

Never had Gavin gotten out of a car so fast in his life, nevermind that he had to twist about to get the door open with his left arm, it was no sooner that the car was in park that he was opening the door and free. “I’m going to... uh, diner, that way, couple blocks, be back later.” That was real smooth, nothing suspect about that at all, nothing at all, was completely normal that he tripped on his words and decided to go take a walk middle of the night in the freezing cold. Nothing weird about that at all, nope. It was by the grace of some god that finally took mercy on him that neither vampire followed him, Nine motioned a simple ‘fine’ and Connor stared at him like he was a fish walking on land. Whatever, he did not follow and that was all that mattered. 

Honestly it was amazing nothing happened for the walk because Gavin paid zero attention, he could have walked past drug deals or strippers and would not have noticed right now. Instead shivered and tried really hard to not think about anything at fucking all, nothing, nope nothing to think about. When he got to the diner the blast of heat was a welcome relief, and something he could safely focus on, his hands were frozen and his nose was almost running but at least it was warm inside. Even gave zero fucks that the hostess was a leech, could not care less right now, she asked the normal questions, how many, table or booth and he much have answered something because a few minutes later and he was at a booth with a menu in his hands. 

Got coffee and a stack of pancakes ordered from a tired waitress that looked like she wanted to be home instead of dealing with a mostly empty diner, but that meant she did not try to make small talk, which was great. Wonderful even. Mostly because Gavin was pretty sure he if was asked how he was doing he was going to ramble and he was worried on what exactly would tumble past his lips. Could he blame this on pain meds? Except he was pretty sure this started before being stabbed, what other vamp had he looked at and thought they were attractive instead of too fake, too perfect? He was fucked, but it was fine, it was, whatever. So apparently he had a crush like he was fifteen instead of in his thirties, whatever, he would ignore it and things would be just fucking fine. 

With coffee dropped off he pulled it closer to wrap his hands around it’s warmth, he really needed to get gloves, or a scarf, something, this winter was kicking his ass. The entire right side of his chest was yelling at him, likely because of the cold and shrugging off the sling, but he just wanted to cuddle his coffee in peace. Which clearly meant he was not allowed to, because the world really did hate him and somehow Gavin knew the second the stupid door gave a little jingle that it was Nine. Because of course it was Nine, of course it was. 

Nine settled across from him and set medication bottle and cellphone on the table, directly between them both and yeah Gavin had forgotten that Nine had ended up with his phone. Also clearly lost track of time and maybe that was why he hurt so fucking much. It did not help that Nine did shit like this, like he cared, like he could not have just waited at the precinct and done work instead of tracking Gavin’s dumbass down. Because he could have just waited for Gavin to slouch back, freezing and miserable and hunched over from pain, could have done that stupid eyebrow thing that was basically a silent quirk of amusement at someone else’s expense. He could have. Maybe Gavin deserved that. And why the fuck did he know far too many of Nine’s ques and micro expressions? What the fuck. 

Like now, Nine had his head tilted just slightly, lips pressed thin and eyes narrowed just a bit and that was totally his ‘you are being more foolish than normal, what’s wrong’ face. Shit, Gavin was fucked. Ended up giving a shrug, one shouldered because he was not fond of pain thank you, and reached for the pills, “Nothing, it’s nothing.” Grumbled words that were a pathetic attempt at lying really, should have said nothing at all. But oh look pancakes, perfect distraction, so let the waitress turn attention to Nine and did not pay attention because there were pancakes. Almost expected Nine to push it, once the waitress left, but he did not, of course not, he never pushed anything really, not really. 

The rest of the meal should have been silent, or well lacking conversation, and it should have been uncomfortable to have Nine just sitting there, or creepy with how he was studying Gavin like somehow this was interesting. Gavin mostly was just trying to not get syrup everywhere because it was less painful to use his left hand but not any more graceful really. At least he did not stab himself in the face, that had been a thing a few days ago, a horrible thing that happened and would never get mentioned. 

‘Should have’ and ‘were’ are different things, because for once Nine did push, in a way. 

‘If you need to talk about anything, I will listen.’ And fuck if it did not say something that all he had to do was shift slightly to get Gavin’s attention for all that he was trying to ignore the vampire. Gavin almost choked on his pancakes, almost. Because really there was no way he could even start in on that. That would be great. At least managed to hide a second behind his coffee in the light of not dying on pancakes, gave him time to collect himself. Really could use more than a second but whatever, would take what he could get. Because really, really, how was he even supposed to try to reply to that?

Oh yeah Nine, I lowkey think I’m falling for you, sorry if things get awkward. 

Nope. So much nope. And see, right here, this moment at least proved that vampires did not have weird mind shit going on, or maybe just that Nine was not a dick to go around poking in people’s heads. Either way Gavin would take it right now. Gave a shrug, “It’s nothing, just tired and stressed.” Except was not really tired, not after having days off and being away from the noise of an apartment complex, he had pretty much finally adjusted to this weird night schedule bullshit. So maybe he was just going crazy, had about as much possibility as anything else right now. “You make any sense of the medical gibberish?” See that was a nice safe topic, work, work was a great topic to throw them into. 

Nine did not look convinced but thankfully let it drop and took the topic change without lingering over other things, ‘Test results, blood and bone marrow mostly, some soft tissue.’ There was a half a second Gavin wondered if he wanted this conversation over pancakes, not because he was easily grossed out, but because did he want to ruin the sanctity of pancakes? “Okay?” Pretty sure this was heading nowhere great, and given that Nine hesitated in answering, eyes scanning across the diner before flickering to Gavin then at the table, something like dread settled in his gut. Gavin pushed away his plate and wished he had something stronger than coffee on hand, a bad mix with pain meds but somehow was thinking it might be needed. “Nine?” 

Got to watch the vampire take a breath, a pointless action for a dead guy really, but he at least answered, ‘Test results of vampire coding being introduced to human factors.’ Nine glanced up to catch his eye and Gavin stared at him a moment, not really taking that in for a few long moments because that sounded crazy. Impossible. There had been research done into that before, years ago if he remembered right, back when vampires were a newer idea, were just starting to become mainstream and affordable for everyday folk to buy. Gavin had not really paid attention to it at the time, he had ignored pretty much anything dealing with leeches and CyberLife honestly, but it never went anywhere and that was answer enough. 

Apparently his silence meant Nine continued on, ‘Most of it resulted in total failures.’ A beat as Nine waited for Gavin to draw his conclusions, because most did not mean all and Gavin blinked. Gavin’s turn to take a breath, but he held it a moment before standing, dug out his wallet and dropped more than enough to cover, grabbed his phone and pill bottle and shoved both in his jacket pocket. “Come on.” He needed outside, in open air, even if it was freezing cold, but he needed air before he tried to wrap his head around this craziness. This was more than just some homicide and kidnapping, this was… fuck he did not know what this was. 

Outside was better, in some sense, felt less trapped anyway. “We get the medical files for the kid yet?” Because as much as he hated to think about it he was already thinking about it, flashing back to empty eyes set in a pale thin face. Nine motioned a smooth ‘no’ and of course not, Nine continued, signing what Gavin was already figuring. ‘The hospital supposedly had a technical error, they say they might be able to recover but are unsure when.’ Yeah, had figured it was something like that. Given the time it was a little late to go swinging by the hospital and trying to talk to someone that might really know anything, would be better to go about things the right way anyway, make phone calls and that bullshit. 

“Alright, lets go dump this shit on Fowlers desk like good little peons so we can kick the hornet's nest tomorrow.” Not that Gavin was even sure where to go from here honestly, was pretty sure this went past more than just one random vamp kidnapping a dying kid, so maybe look into any contacts that Claria the leech had? Gavin muttered a curse into the cold and worked on wiggling the stupid arm sling back on, half surprised he had not gotten glared at for that. There was too much shit going on in too short a period of time. Uh, Connor was back at the precinct too, great, just what he did not want to deal with right now. 

At least on the walk back Gavin could safely say there was nothing creepy staring out of the shadows, not with Nine keeping stride with him, not even shivering the fucker. The receptionist watches them both enter through the lobby, her eyes tracking them but she says nothing. She is a hundred times more frigid than whatever weather outside, fuck, Gavin had no idea why she came back, fuck why anyone let her back, but she is there, every single fucking night. Vampires. There is nothing said and the bullpen has an oddly eerie feeling to it, but that is just how the overnight shift feels, he got used to that weeks ago. Thankfully Nine is more eloquent in reports, because Gavin pretty much just wanted to put that this was all utter bullshit of creepy vamp shit and dying kids. So he writes some shit that kind of makes sense, sends it to Nine and he edits it and makes it really make sense. Simple really, now if everything else could be simple it would be great, really. But the rest of the shift passes without anything else happening and Gavin is just happy with the idea of going the fuck home and hugging his bed. 

______________________________________

The crazy broad is standing at the front door, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed looking angry and hot all at the same time and Gavin has zero energy to deal with her, or listen to whatever this mess was. Barely grunted at her as he breezed past her, hand scanner letting him in with barely a pause, the best part was that Nine followed without showing signs of so much as glancing at the chick. Uh, North, her, one of the main four leader people apparently, gave a frustrated sound, “You can’t ignore me forever Nine! Damn it just talk to me!” He closed the door in her face with something of a smile and Gavin watched because well it was kind of amusing. “Ok, seriously, she has stalkerish ex-girlfriend vibes going on.” And Nine, the annoying little piece of shit, nods and gives a silent sigh and wait what? 

Nine wandered off and Gavin glanced at the door, where he can see through one of the weird little decorative windows that North kicks a bush and stalks off, trying to regroup things into the idea of Nine dating anyone at all. Did that mean he dated women? Or only dated other vampires? Except that totally did not matter, at all, whatsoever and Gavin was pushing that thought right out of his head. “You need better tastes.” It sort of just slipped out and Nine paused to stare at him, looking bemused really, and yeah no wonder on a comment like that. Gavin froze, “I mean, uhh, she kind of seems, er, not your type? Plus she didn’t even know you have a phone, told her she could text you and she looked like she had been slapped.” This was not a conversation that should be happening, at all, nope. 

Nine stares another second, this time like Gavin is being stupid, and yeah that about sums it up, before bothering to comment anything, ‘I got the phone when we started working together.’ So basically for the dumb human’s benefit. Alright, great, that was just… great. He needed to retreat before he dug this hole any deeper, except Nine looked like he had more to say, and well that was rare really, Nine being in a talkative mood. ‘We did not exactly date, though she wanted to.’ A pause and Gavin tried really hard to not feel relieved on hearing that, at least tried to not let it show. ‘North helped me during my recovery process.’ And just like that Nine turned and walked off, except he went for the kitchen, not the stairs to head to his room, so Gavin like the idiot he was, followed. 

Ended up claiming one of the bar stools as Nine puttered around the kitchen pointlessly, and for some reason ended up getting a glass of water and sliding it towards Gavin before taking a seat himself. “Can I ask?” Because was hard to tell right now if this was honestly a weird moment of opening up, or if Nine was having a mental meltdown, maybe both? Nine forced something of a smile but answered anyway. ‘You should know, we are going to have to go to Jericho at some point with how the case has gone.’ Oh that was a horrible idea, but yeah it made sense, go poke at more vampires to see if there was anyone that had connections with Claira to be running fucked up tests. Great. ‘You know what I was.’ That was it, no expanding on, and Gavin nodded anyway, yeah he had a sense, the whole hunter thing, vampire police for CyberLife when things had started up with vampires gaining free will. CyberLife trying to keep things out of public eye by cleaning up their fuck up. 

‘During the uprising I was still on CyberLife’s leash.’ Which yeah Gavin had kind of figured that out here and there, Connor seemed more welcomed among his fellow leeches so likely had flipped sides sooner. ‘For all that Markus claims to be a pacifist, everyone seems to forget that he did take lives towards the end.’ Gavin ended up pulling the glass of water closer just to have something to fiddle with, something to glance at when it got too much with Nine watching him. What Gavin did not expect was Nine to click his tongue and start to strip, Gavin was suddenly standing, “Woah, hey hey!” Nine did not look impressed, if anything there was an arch to his brow that was more cutting than a roll of his eyes. 

To be fair there had not been a point that Gavin had seen the vamp less than perfect, Gavin wandered around the house in sweatpants and old tees most of the time, because fuck it why not. Nine never came downstairs less than ready to step outside, shoes on and everything, Gavin mostly chalked it up to weird ocd leech crap and let it go. So that now suddenly Nine was pulling down the zipper to the modified dress jacket he always wore was a little awkward and weird, alright, Gavin had a right to freak out a little thank you. 

‘I did almost accomplish my mission, went through Connor to do it even.’ Pale fingers dipped under the high turtle neck he wore, hesitating before he pulled down just enough to show the etching of scars across his throat, chin tilted up and to the side. Gavin froze because oh fucking goddamn shit. That was not just some scratches across pale skin, that was gorges through his fucking neck, deep and vicious. Nine gave a huff of air before righting himself, but not rezipping his jacket, his signing a little slower now, ‘I had my hand in his chest so he ripped out my throat.’ 

Silence, more than that, stillness. Gavin stared and Nine watched him like he was expecting something loud and sudden, like he was expecting Gavin to run. Fair enough. Gavin almost wanted to, it was a thought nagging at him, like a little warning scream of what he was getting into. Instead of listening to it he stepped around the counter, not really sure what the fuck he was doing right now. Nine did not back away, but he did still sign, ‘At the time I wanted to die and they forced me not to, I failed what I was meant to do and then had to get forced to-’ He cut off, hands still and jaw tense, not angry really but close. If Gavin had to guess he would say it was more in the range of self hatred. He could connect the dots though, the way Nine tended to outright avoid touching anyone, how he watched other vampires like he was waiting for an excuse to lash out. Yeah, Gavin could guess at some of it, at least in human terms. 

Gavin caught his hands, somehow surprised at the slight chill to them, not freezing but there was a lingering coldness from being outside, hell maybe they both needed gloves. “Hey,” He had no fuckin idea what to say here, none at all, and he sucked at winging it, but fuck it. “You don’t have to go to Jericho, it’s fine, I can bully a warrant and get the asshole to come down to the station. Fuck Anderson and his pet can deal with them even, alright. Pull the wounded duck card and we can pass this whole fucked up mess off and go back to normal dead people problems.” And fuck if Nine did not stare at him like he was completely surprised, taken off guard and shocked, like he never thought, never considered, that just maybe Gavin would do something like that for him. 

Nine went to pull his hands free and Gavin let him easily, had not really been trying to hold him still, more just make sure he had Nine’s attention on him. Gavin expected Nine to completely pull back, to give some flippant reply and close himself back off, moment over. Instead Nine place a hand on Gavin’s face, his eyes searching for something while Gavin froze, again froze really, like he was suddenly trapped even though there was no pressure to keep him still. Nine was giving him an out, a chance here to do something, to say something pithy and pull away. Instead Gavin embraced the fact he really had just been doing a long string of stupid ideas recently, why bother changing things up at this point. 

So it made perfect sense to lean forward and kiss him, and at least he had the forewarning that Nine ran cold, but it was still something of a surprise really to fully realize it, that hey cold lips were a little weird but oddly not a turn off. What the problem came to be was the half a second later of his brain really catching up and realizing that oh fuck he totally just kissed Nine and oh shit what was he doing he fucked everything the fuck up. Day one of realizing he was falling for the fucking leech and he fucked it up. The good thing was the next half a second had Nine pulling him closer and moving into the kiss without another pause and maybe Gavin would not simply die on the spot. 

Was not really sure what he was expecting, maybe for things to be weirdly different than kissing a human, but it was just a kiss, nothing terribly creepy about it at all. So Gavin shifted closer, vaguely aware that Nine parted his legs to pull Gavin that half a step closer, and then there was a sweep of tongue across his lips and yeah, fuck it, Gavin parted his lips eagerly. That was when things did get more tricky. Truthfully Gavin never really paid attention to the whole hype about leeches having fangs, like out of old myths and stupid fantasy stories. Kissing someone with sharper than normal teeth was harder than it sounded and far too soon into it he nicked his tongue and flinched back rather automatically. 

“Ow.” Was more said because it had surprised him than it honestly hurt, there was the tang of blood in his mouth but it was only a few drops, nothing big. Alright, that would have to be something to keep in mind, sharp teeth were a thing. Gavin had barely pulled back, if Nine bothered to breath they would be sharing air, and for a moment he worried that now he would be shoved away, now Nine would realize what a fuck up Gavin was. Human and pretty much an asshole. There was no changing that. Instead Nine was watching him like he was something perfect, and Gavin realized there was no pulling back, better yet no flash of red in cold grey eyes. No, better yet, Nine mouthed a single word, silent with the barest brush of air, just ‘sorry’ and Gavin answered by kissing him again, because really fuck it, practice made perfect or some shit like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh, guys, you are all amazing as hell. Just saying. Also this chapter was totally not written in one sitting like the first chapter, hopefully it still reads smoothly but I can only do that many words in one sitting so many times, I have a bony butt, not going to lie. 
> 
> So more stuff added at least, more plot and vampire crap and romance all in one, hopefully worth it? -shrug- I still might add more, feels weird to not at least finish the case bit of things here, hmm, something to debate I guess. I at least promised another chapter though because holy crickets I did not expect the mass whoosh of people supporting the idea of weird vampiric twist on things.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright I give up, apparently this is going to be a long drawn out affair. I blame everyone that commented first chapter wanting more, that could have been the only chapter, could have been it. Now this is turning into a huge monster of a story.

Gavin stuck to his word and bullied a warrant and request for the leaders of Jericho to come to the station, it took some work for sure, he was not ashamed to say he went to flirting with the night clerk alright. It worked and that was what mattered, even if when he explained to Nine the vamp gave a silent little chuckle and look now, Gavin could be suave if he wanted! He could, he just never wanted to, that would be spoiling people alright. That should have been that, not exactly short or simple, but done was done. The whole thing took a few days, and that gave them time to look into questioning the hospital, no surprise that it was Claria’s computer ID that had been logged last before a lot of patient files locked down thanks to a virus. 

Had to give her credit where it was due, thanks to that they had to look into all the files that got locked down, not just the kid’s, just in case she was hiding more than originally assumed. Except they could not just trudge through the paper medical files because that would be an invasion of privacy, so instead it was a whole dance around of trying to track down all the people and do short little interviews with them. The whole thing made Gavin grumpy, or maybe it was because his stitches itched and anytime he looked like he might rub at them Nine was magically there to stare him into behaving. Also could be that anytime Connor was remotely in sight he seemed to be staring at Gavin like he was a puzzle to take apart and figure out, which was a hundred times worse than dealing with his weird over-helpfulness. 

Nine and Gavin had not been open about the shift in their relationship, it was nobody's fucking business. To be fair, hard to explain to anyone else when Gavin had no clue what the hell they was doing. They had not exactly talked it out in detail, or at all, just sometimes now they shared kisses, and Nine was more open to casual contact. It was weird as fuck to adjust to because no matter what Nine ran cold, and at least at home the leech would find excuses to touch Gavin. Not that it was hard, Gavin was not against this after all, and he was still trying to get some sort of culture through to the leech and that meant a lot of movie mornings after work. Couch cuddles had somehow become the best part to look forward to after a long shift, cuddling a cold vampire simply meant that Gavin had dragged a blanket to the couch, between that and clingy cats the problem was solved. 

Today was a day off, mostly because Gavin had demanded it, Jericho and company had made arrangements to go in for their interviews. Funny how all he had to do was blow up loudly about refusing to deal with more creepy fuckers and that Anderson and his pet should deal with it since Connor was all best buds with them and all. Alright he got dressed down for it, but no one had read further into things, writing it off as Gavin being his normal asshole self and generally just not wanting to be stuck in a room full of vamps to play nice with. It helped that Connor of all fucking people pointed out that it would not go well if Gavin insulted anyone, like somehow he would give a shit if he insulted some stuck up vamp. Alright he kind of had a point. So it was a day off, the week got slightly rearranged to flip around and whatever, it was fine, it all worked out. Nines just calmly changed his schedule to match without needing to give a reason why because they were partners, that was good enough. Meant that Nine did not have to so much as lay eyes on the other leeches, Anderson and Connor could do the interviews and Gavin would read it all over tomorrow and nitpick in his normal bitchy way. 

So that the doorbell went off was a horrible sign. “We’re not home.” Grumbled words as he refused to peel his eyes from the movie, was the turning point of the whole bloody movie damn it. Nine though was all polite and shit and paused the movie because of course he could not simply ignore the door. Leave it to leeches to still get visitors at two in the fucking morning. “Nooo, Nine come on, the chances of it being anyone that you remotely want to see is pretty much zero, so ignore them, I do it all the time.” Course the only person that ever took the time to visit Gavin before he moved in with Nine was Tina, and she had a key so had tended to just wander in like she owned the place. That was beside the point. Nine have a little huff of air that was a sigh and worked on freeing himself from blanket, cats and a clingy Gavin. 

Left on the couch alone made Gavin glare the direction of the door before he got up and went to follow, curious now, alright had been curious before just not enough to motivate him to get up. Now though, well now he might as well. Being late to the little door meet and greet simply meant that he had to peer past Nine to see who it was, somehow both surprised and not at all surprised to see Connor. “Not invited.” Just to put out there, knowing that likely Nine would overrule him if he really wanted to, they had some weird brotherly thing going on that made no sense. No really, half the time it seemed like Nine wanted nothing to do with the other vamp, and Connor wanted to wrap Nine in blankets and bubble wrap. Gavin just kind of gave up on understanding it. 

“What is he doing here?” There was a sharpness to the question, the entire mood shifting in a second as Connor locked eyes on Gavin, and woah, wait, what? Sure, had not become public knowledge, the whole moving into Nine’s, but did Connor not keep up on things? Maybe Gavin was just too used to Nine seeming to know everything at all times? They had not exactly hid it, for fucks sake they showed up to work together and left together, Gavin still had not gotten around to getting a car. Insurance was fighting it, saying that a vampire ripping the doors off did not qualify as a work accident, which was bullshit. Off topic though. 

Given Gavin was in sweats and an old t shirt he thought it was pretty clear what he was doing, but he still took a moment to look at the leech like he was a moron. “What are you doing here? Skipping work?” How very human of him, and bullshit because Gavin could fucking guess what he was doing here, after talking to other vamps. Crossed his arms over his chest, carefully because of the pull of stitches and was amused to note that Nine shifted to the side in the doorway, giving room for Gavin. Which only meant that Gavin got to see there were others behind Connor and oh fuck no, this was not some ambush meeting, not happening. Made sense now that Nine was letting Gavin lead this conversation. For all Gavin never paid attention of vampire crap on the news it was impossible to not recognize the leech standing a few feet back. “Pretty sure you took a few wrong turns to get to the station.” 

Connor glanced to Nine, likely expecting him to cut in and honestly Gavin wanted to growl at him, maybe that growing spark of anger was getting through because Connor focused back on him. “There were questions brought up about Claria that were not in the report.” Uh-huh, Gavin was only half buying that, but that was besides the point, because this was not supposed to be Jericho and co. asking questions but the other way around. So really everyone had to excuse the fact that Gavin gave no shits to whatever this was that was going on, a show of power or whatever, fuck it. This was his day off and he had been cuddling his boyfriend, haha holy shit they were technically boyfriends, on the couch. Now there were was a small gathering of leeches at the front lawn like the world’s worst girl scouts except they did not even have cookies to make it worthwhile putting up with them. 

“I said this was a bad idea.” Soft words from farther into the yard and Gavin pretty much automatically shifted to glance back, party curious who it was and mostly it really was just automatic to look at who was talking. It was Simon, looking terribly apologetic. Well hey at least someone realized this was a shit idea, that right there earned him points, which really just meant that Gavin maybe did not hate him as much as everyone else. Maybe. 

Connor was looking constipated, or maybe just super conflicted, was hard to tell honestly, “I was unaware that you had company tonight, I am sorry for interrupting your plans.” Maybe he was just really really blind, or really hopeful that Nine had better tastes? Because really Gavin had to still question that sometimes. Still in this moment Gavin outright snorted, terribly amused because really the vamp was missing the bigger picture here and this was kind of great. “However this is important, to the case and for the safety of others Nine.” And maybe that was true, maybe, Gavin glanced at Nine out of the corner of his eye to see if he had anything to weigh in with. Nine gave a shrug, that was it, just a simple shrug, leaving it up to Gavin, and that was in fact it except for the white knuckled grip that Nine had to the door. The doorknob had indents in it that were not there before. That pretty much made up Gavin’s mind, as if being ambushed had not already helped him want to tell everyone to fuck off. 

Ended up with Gavin taking a breath and running fingers through his hair, “Alright look, how about you email us, yeah? Whatever questions or concerns, and we might or might not reply tonight.” No promises either way, but it was an olive branch being offered, because of the case and only because of that.

Nothing could work like it was fucking suppose to though, of course not, because Markus stepped forward, a hand on Connor’s arm to sooth him and get him to step aside. “I understand this can be hard to deal with Gavin, I just want to help in anyway that I can. For that little boys sake, for the sake of anyone else that might be caught up in this. Your case might lead to something much larger than you can fully comprehend, so I need you to understand that I just want to help.” His tone was soft and careful, like he was speaking to an easy spooked animal, eyes almost glowing as he watched Gavin and tried to look so sincere. 

And it made sense, of course it did, anything negative coming out on vampires right now would cripple everything that Markus was trying to accomplish, it made perfect sense that they needed to act on everything they could in the moment. 

Gavin stumbled back, confused a second because somehow he was several feet away from the door and Nine was filling the doorway and there was shouting from the yard. Everything felt like it was moving in slow motion, blurry around the edges and he was pretty sure he was close to being sick. Too much pressure in his head with his heart trying to crawl up his throat and that mother fucker totally just did some fucked up mind whammy shit. Mother fucker. Gavin tried to not claw at his chest, telling himself that there was air in the room, he was breathing, it was fine, he was fine. Needed to get his shit together. Needed to not just stand there like an idiot. Was stupid to go meeting anyone eyes, he got sloppy, over confident. Fucking leeches. So weird mind shit, not a myth. 

For a moment he was tempted to get his service gun from the living room, it was so very tempting, Gavin itched to have it ground him, the cold weight would be familiar in his hand. Also knew that if he went for it he would be shooting someone tonight, knew it in his bones, so he tried to collect himself and not look as terrified as he felt. There was still angry words but no yelling now and Gavin had to basically grab Nine’s arm and shove him to get him to even notice Gavin, and even then he did not seem to want to move. It was like trying to move a brick wall, impossible, and seriously being the only squishy human here was starting to piss him off. There was a beat before Nine gave any room at all, and there was anger in his eyes making them impossibly cold. Yeah, Gavin could understand that. 

“Everyone has two minutes to get the fuck off the yard.” The words were growled out through clenched teeth and Gavin did not look directly at a single person, there was a flutter of motion that had him flinching back a half a step. It was Nine though, moving a hand to hover over his shoulder, unsure and Gavin could not address him right now. “Two minutes before I call anyone I can fucking think of to tell them what a controlling dickwad the fucking massiash of leeches is and hand this case off to the FBI to fuck up.” 

“Reed-” Connor started and Gavin was glad that Nine decided to grip his shoulder that second or he might have stepped past the doorway to take a swing and that would have gone so very badly. That alone had Connor cutting himself off and he was turning to walk off without another word and that was all that Gavin gave a shit about right now. Markus was not at the door, but farther back, being yelled at by two others, Simon and another guy that Gavin could not place right now. He did not fucking care. What mattered was that they were leaving, and that meant he could tug Nine to move and Gavin slammed the door shut harder than needed. The sound echoed almost loud enough to overcome the beat of his own heart in his ears. Almost. 

Gavin turned and walked back for the living room, scooped up a cat and hugged it before pulling the blanket around him and staring blankly at the paused movie, not at all seeing it. Fucking leeches. Nine was hovering just in sight, like he was not sure if he would be welcome right now. And yeah, there was a big part of Gavin that wanted to rage and throw a complete fit, that wanted to take it out on Nine because he was here and because fuck vampires. It would be so easy to go that route, he was good at anger, he was good at being loud and driving everyone off, it was a talent really. Fuck a couple weeks ago he would have without so much a pause. Right now though, right now Gavin lifted one side of the blanket in silent offer, half sure it would be Nine that turned away. Could not blame him if he did. 

But of course Nine was a better person than that and instead came over without so much of a hesitation, arranging himself perfectly to be tucked against Gavin’s side, somehow without disturbing the cat. That was some vamp grace right there, the ability to not piss off cats. For right now this was fine, most of the light coming from the tv screen and still paused movie, the house being silent past the muffled sound of too many fish tanks in one house. Gavin was well aware that he was too tense, still wound up like a spring ready to snap, but as minutes ticked by it was easier. Made it when two little dings went off he did not jump out of his skin, instead only glared at both cellphones sitting on the coffee table. Already pretty sure why there was an instantaneous email notification for both of them and not giving a flying fuck. 

Instead he shifted and fought with the blanket enough to turn, letting the cat run away even so he could burrow into Nine’s chest, blanket pulled almost over his head. It took a few seconds before Nine reacted, it always took him a few careful seconds, like he was never sure what to do in the moments that Gavin reached for him first. So it took a few seconds but he still wrapped arms around Gavin and held him and they could both ignore that Nine was still shaking just a bit and Gavin was just now starting to breath at a regular rate. “No offense, but fuck vampires.” Muffled words but Gavin figured he would still be heard, and right now he did not want to lift his head to see if Nine had anything to add, doubted it given Nine only ran a hand in soothing circles across the curve of his spine. 

______________________________

Gavin was getting too old to sleep on a couch, because he was pretty sure his spine was twisted in new and cruel shapes and his left hip was numb. It took him far to long to realize exactly that he was on the couch though, at first it was a slow wake up that had him almost content. Content till he realized that whole problem of being too fucking old to sleep on anything but a bed, he was totally spoiled by the weird cloud bed that likely cost what he made in a year. Took another few moments to realize he was more laying on Nine than on the couch because really both of them could not exactly fit across the couch. Gavin then promptly rolled off the couch as he flailed, smacked the coffee table on his way down and took the blanket with him as a bonus. 

Laying on the floor let him at least groan in pain and stare at the ceiling, this was only adding to reasons why beds were better, so of course Nine had to enter his line of vision with a look equal amused and confused. Alright so he must have fallen asleep and Nine rearranged them in some attempt of achieving comfort, that was just great, fucking peachy. “Just leave me here, I can meld with the floor.” Grumbled words because Gavin was pretty sure he was mortified right now and blushing which made this a thousand times worse. Was a reason to get up though, so with help of the coffee table he pulled himself to his feet, snagging his phone as he stood to glance at the time. “Shit, fucking shit.” Had about forty minutes to get presentable for work. 

Motion from Nine had Gavin glancing over for the vampire to sign to him, ‘I did try to wake you earlier.’ Gavin only groaned again on that and drug a hand down his face, trying to wake up faster. “Yeah, sorry.” Not much else he could offer on that, he was not exactly a morning person, or whatever, not great at that whole waking up early thing unless it was a case of insomnia. Was trying to ignore that apparently they were at the stage of sleeping on the couch smushed together like teenagers with an open-door policy from their parents. “Uh, gonna go, shower, yeah.” And this was running away, casually strolling away that was pretty much the same as running away because he was so outside of his depth here, shit. 

Was easier to focus on normal routine than to think on anything from yesterday, the bad bits or the good bits. Took very little to fall into pattern, dig out clothes, wander to the bathroom, brush his teeth, ignore shaving for another day, take a shower. Simple things that he did every day, even days he woke up nuzzled against Nine like the vamp was a giant pillow apparently. He was not going to address it, if Nine brought it up then fine he could muddle through, otherwise Gavin was good on just ignoring it. 

Like the perfect asshole that he was Nine was waiting at the door with a coffee in hand that he passed to Gavin, with a ghosting of a kiss that had Gavin rocking back on his heels surprised at the utter domestic-ness of it. That was not even a word, whatever. Alright, sure, he could adjust to this, so rolled with it and followed Nine out to the car without a word. Generally the ride to work was silent, Gavin not awake enough to bother with pointless small talk and Nine browsing through emails or something on his phone. Tonight Nine snapped for attention, ‘I need to meet with Markus.’ 

“The fuck not.” Was the first thing that slipped from Gavin’s mouth, which after a second was still the best thing to say so he stood by it. The slightly raised eyebrow he got as a reaction only made Gavin glare and dig up more words, really wishing this had been brought up after his first cup of coffee. “If that fucker has anything useful then he better have fucking told Anderson and his fucking pet since he’s all giving a shit about how it looks for him and his.” There was fuck all reason that Nine had to go talk to any of them, they could figure this shit out just fine on their own. Had almost gotten through tracking down all the locked patient files, there were in fact three others that stood out, mostly because they were missing, was pretty fucking suspect. So progress was being made, maybe not great progress but it was progress without other leeches getting their noses into shit. 

‘Both Anderson and Connor can be lead astray due to his voice.’ 

Gavin had to take a second to decipher that bit, and then it was still a ‘huh’ moment as he worked through the information sorting out in his head. That shit made so much more sense though. “Wait, shit varies leech to leech?” Ah likely should have asked that a little better since he was talking to a vampire, but then Nine knew he was an asshole so whatever. There was a nod in answer, more a tilt of his head but it was basically a nod and well shit, what the fuck did that mean then. Any vamp could pull out new tricks? Markus could fuck with someone’s head just by talking to them, and yeah that made sense, everyone was all on and on about how charismatic he was, what a passionate speaker or whatever. Course it took some vamp with like a siren voice or whatever to lead things, of course, best way to talk stupid humans into listening. Fucking vampires. Shit. 

‘Some vampires, once freed, have developed an ability unique to them. In Markus’ case it would be his voice, it is something that he cannot turn off however I was lead to believe he had better morals.’ There was a glower there, Nine frowning and eyes hard, still clearly angry about yesterday, and yeah Gavin understood that, was his own head that was fucked with. Few words from some vamp and he was ready to invite the whole lot in and tell them anything they wanted if it meant he was helping. 

“Okay, okay, and what, your immune or something? That your thing?” Why was it that he always found out creepy vampire shit after he really needed to know it? For real if some vamp decided to write a book about all this shit they could become billionaires overnight, there was jack shit known about vampires really, secretive pricks the lot of them. ‘Thus far.’ Which was not comforting at all really, so Gavin really had to stick to his first answer, and even restated it. “Great, well still a big fuck no on talking to the guy. Don’t need whatever shit he has to say.” On top of that Gavin never wanted to hear him say another word in his life. There was a soundless sigh from Nine but he did not sign anything else but simply turned back to his phone, topic dropped for now. 

Creepy receptionist was the same as ever and Gavin barely glanced at her, so of course today she spoke up, “Detective Reed.” Soft voice, almost too quiet and it was more Nine stopping that got Gavin’s attention than his being called out. “There is a visitor waiting for you at your desk.” Gavin stared at her a moment but she did not meet his eyes, instead had already turned back to her computer and whatever that was fine. He hesitated a moment but really no point in pissing off the creepy desk lady, “Uh, thanks?” Was not sure why she was telling him this, technically not her job, or maybe it was, fuck if he knew. She lifted her head, but looked at Nine instead of him, “Chloe will be the best guardian for him, even if other is argued.” Uhh, Gavin looked at Nine to see if that made any sense to him, but Nine looked vaguely puzzled and this was just getting more creepy. So conversation over, he walked off before she decided to spit out more cryptic shit, there was not enough coffee in the world for this. 

There was someone sitting in front of his desk though, oversized hoodie and legs drawn up to their chest and Gavin had a sinking feeling he already knew who it was and what the receptionist meant. Took a breath and really wished this case was not so fucked up and leading to so much shit that meant far too much. So when the pale face lifted and looked at him Gavin was not surprised to see it was the kid, teenager whatever, David Dawley staring at him. Was not even surprised that Nine stopped him and signed a single word and yeah Gavin already figured that out. This all just got so much more fucked. Gavin sighed and rounded his desk, plopping in his chair and for a moment really wanted to face plant on the desk, just for a long moment. Ignored how Nine stood almost too close, ignoring his own desk to instead be a hovering guard, tall and intimidating, and it clearly worked because the kid shrank back in the chair, chin dipping behind his bony knees. 

“I didn’t know where else to go.” Fuck he sounded like a lost kid even, shit he was a lost kid even if he had a change in species. So Gavin nodded like that made perfect sense, nevermind that he had only laid eyes on the teen once and they never traded words. 

“Alright, here is what's going to happen. You’re a minor so I have to call your next of kin, your aunt, get her down here to sit with you and see if you are both okay with some questions being asked.” Because there were a lot of questions to be asked here, a lot of them racing through his head right now but Gavin needed to do this right or it would all get fucked later. The kid nodded and tugged at his hoodie strings, not saying anything else and Gavin trusted that Nine would watch him while he pulled up the information on the aunt. This was going to be an awkward as fuck phone call, still dialed it and leaned back in his chair, half watching David. 

“Hello?” 

Oh yeah it was like seven at night, not exactly the normal time for random calls. “This is Detective Reed calling to speak to Susan Dawley.” 

The soft sound of surprise was followed by a more secure answer, “This is she… did you find David? Is he okay? Please tell me you found David.” She was begging and Gavin cringed because he hated these types of phone calls, but at this this time he technically had good news. 

“Yes ma’am, so I need you to come down to the station as soon as possible, we have some questions we would like to ask him and need you-” Gavin was cut off because the lady gave a sound that was a lot like a high pitched scream and for a split second Gavin was terrified something had happened. Like Claria breaking in to take back the littlest brat or something. 

“Oh my god! David’s safe?! I’ll be right there! You tell him I’ll be right there! He’s safe! Oh my go-” And the phone call disconnected leaving Gavin to pull the receiver from his ear and stare at it in slight confusion because uh what the fuck was that. 

There was a soft snort from the kid, “She’s always like that.” He at least had lifted his head from hiding, something of a smile tugging at his lips, “Mom always says that Aunt Susan never bothered to grow up.” A beat of silent as the kid realized what he just said and his entire face just kind of crumpled and Gavin never knew what to do with kids, much less crying kids, or you know kids that were not even human anymore. So kind of just nudged a tissue box towards the kid wordlessly and ignored that the tears were definitely red tinted in color, or that the kid took the entire box and sort of just hugged it to his chest. 

Gavin floundered a second really, “Uh,” Shit what was he supposed to say here? “You need anything? Water or umm…” That was a stupid question damn it. Nine tapped on the desk for attention and both Gavin and the kid looked at him. ‘I will get him a drink.’ And Nine glided off while Gavin tried really hard to ignore that there were blood bags in the break room fridge. Why he could adjust to packs of blood sharing a shelf with coffee creamer at home but blood in the work fridge was weird he did not understand. Whatever. Police precinct and they kept bags of blood in the fridge, was just creepy. 

“What’d he just do? The finger thing?” The words were somewhat watery sounding and Gavin had to wonder if vampire snot was also bloody? Not something he was ever going to ask or attempt to find out, not a chance in hell, so latched on to the topic with likely more energy than he should, grateful for something that was not dealing with anything case related or blood related. 

“ASL, american sign language, uh basically just talking with motions and your hands.” Real eloquent that answer, but it got the point across basically. Gavin paused a moment before signing out as he spoke for an example, “It’s just a form of communication.” The kid stared at him and Gavin tried to not fidget, it had been years since he got self conscious over something so stupid. 

“How do you say hi?” A soft question, like he was scared to ask and Gavin understood that to a degree, alright sure he could do this, it would waste time at least and was a nice safe topic. When Nine wandered back with a mug for the kid they were working through the alphabet and somehow it turned into an impromptu lesson in ASL. Made worse when others noticed and drifted over curious, including Connor who just pulled up a chair all serious and silent and Gavin just gave in that somehow this was a thing that was happening. Though it was kind of a surprise how many others seemed interested in trying to learn anything. 

By the time the aunt showed up Gavin had pretty much forgotten that he had been waiting for her, was impossible to ignore her though given she basically flew across the room and attack-hugged the kid. Like chair and all swooped in and for lack of better word glomped him. Everyone seemed to realize that was the end of the lessons and wandered off, minus Connor who was pretty much a pest in the fashion that he was impossible to get rid of. Gavin let the lady get her hysterics out, though so far that seemed to be simply attaching herself to David and telling him he was grounded for the rest of his life. Which given he was maybe not exactly alive anymore that might be hard to work out, would that mean he wasn’t grounded or he was literally grounded forever? That would fucking suck and was completely off topic shit. 

“Miss Dawley, maybe we should go somewhere more private?” Before she figured out the race shift in her nephew and possibly freaked out, and maybe that would prompt her to let the kid go, he was looking a little peckish honestly. He had gone through the mug of blood Gavin noted, so maybe that was not far from true. He stood and rounded the desk, more than ready to get a move on with things at this point, really hoping the kid had some answers, he had to. 

The lady looked up almost startled, tears in her eyes but not outright crying at least, “Oh! Right, ha, sorry, I spent the entire drive swearing I wouldn’t be one of those people and now look at me, sorry sorry.” She stole a tissue as she straightened and beamed a smile, “You’re Detective Reed?” She glanced at Nine and blinked but otherwise did not react, “Sorry, um, you are?” 

“Nine.” It was David that answered, “Reed and Nine, I heard about them both, it’s why I came here.” And this was why they needed to get a move on to one of the interrogation rooms, but at least the kid stood as he spoke. Gavin floundered for something to say but Nine was already walking off so fuck it he just followed, was the easier option at this point. Nine had the door open for them so everyone just filed in, including Connor and Gavin glared at him, not wanting to start shit in front of the Dawleys. The fucker just grinned at him like this was a day in the park and stood against a wall, hands behind his back and casual as fuck. Gavin took a breath through grit teeth and tried to ignore him. 

There were not enough chairs by far, and maybe he should have thought that out, instead he got to cut Connor a look, “Hey why don’t you get a few chairs, yeah?” And turned away from him before he could answer, motioning for both the kid and aunt to go ahead and sit in the two chairs currently available. “Alright, as I said on the phone we would like to ask some questions but have to have your consent Miss Dawley, you were granted custody over David, right?” Was pretty sure he had read that somewhere, between being the next of kin and named in mother’s will it had gone through pretty fast. 

“Yes? On both accounts yes. I mean for asking questions and custody.” So she was a little scatter brained, given she had shown up out of the blue because her kidnapped nephew showed up she was honestly doing pretty good. Alright she was in pajamas and combat boots which was a little different but whatever, at this point Gavin gave no fucks. “Is that okay David? I mean I don’t want to pressure you into talking to them?” 

David for his part shrugged and seemed to find the table the most exciting thing ever given how he stared at it, “Yeah, kinda figured would need to tell them everything.” A shrug and nothing else offered. 

“Alright, do you mind if I record this then? Will save the issue of taking notes and possibly having to do follow up interviews later.” 

“That should be fine.” 

Gavin did not jump when the door opened, but he did turn and glare murder, should have expected it of course, since it was just Connor, but damn he was not used to someone just barging into an interrogation room. So a pause to sort out chairs, and of course the leech brought three, one for himself, and he had a notebook like the good little brown-noser he was so he could take notes. Fine, whatever, Gavin could demand a copy of the notes later. Nine sat in easy visual line of Gavin so he could sign without Gavin having to turn away from the Dawleys, because he thought those sort of things out. 

“Okay, um, so, there was the whole mom was murdered thing, I didn’t know that was going to happen, I swear I didn’t. Claria kept promising we would go but I didn’t know that was going to happen like that, I would have done something, said something.” He looked guilty, hell he sounded guilty and Gavin almost wanted to cut in, but fuck if he would know what to say, besides David kept going with only the smallest of pauses. 

“Everything just kind of happened I guess. I’m sure you have figured out everything really, life expectancy of maybe twenty, if I’m lucky. It sucked, and yeah I was angry about it, but really had just kind of accepted it before Claira started saying she could help, that she could change things, that she could get me healed.” Uh no, they had no figured out jack shit for his medical files because that was still a huge hot mess, but Gavin had guessed something along those lines. Had only seen the kid the one time but there was also a look, too thin with too empty of eyes, Gavin was pissed he had not said anything that night, but then the kid also just had his mother murdered and that whole night had gone to shit. 

David tugged at one of the hoodie strings, eyes still downcast. “I thought she was full of it, you know, I’ve seen a million doctors, mom even tried weird pagan stuff and crystals and so I thought she was just being like everyone else. All hopeful and stuff. Except she showed me a bunch of weird tests and stuff, explained them to me about how they were trying to see if vampire genes could heal people. Like make it a one time fix deal, get a shot and done. I was stupid and listened to her.” A shrug. “Started simple, one night we went to some clinic, like an actual clinic, not some weird basement or something, so it looked normal. I mean sure vampire doctors were a little strange but they were all professional and just like any other doctor. Asked all the normal things even, drew some blood for tests and that was it.” 

Great so now they had to look forward to leech clinics and doctors, that sounded just fucking great. 

“I snapped a picture of the place, I don’t know, just like in case I just eaten or something I figured maybe my phone could get found with the pictures? Sounds stupid, but maybe it could help?” Sounded very stupid and very fucking lucky, would be great if his phone had geo tagging turned on. “Well anyway couple weeks after that Claira is all excited saying things matched up or something and they could heal me. I didn’t even think about asking questions, I mean I got told at 12 that I was going to die, and finally someone was saying I could live. And then, and then mom got killed and there was no way I could even think she had something to do with it. Mom loved her, and Claria was all sappy with mom, it was pretty gross honestly, like hand holding all the time and being all cuddly in public. They were better than mom and dad ever were together.” 

Now David was looking up, jaw tense and so very focused, like that was the important part here. 

“But then someone outright asked me about how I could be happy around her knowing what she did. Like I was the last one to know she got mom killed.” A pause as he bit at his lip and the aunt leaned over to wrap an arm around him looking on the verge of tears again, maybe they should have brought the tissue box. “I’m skipping steps though, so that night happened, and we left, went to a hotel that had blackout curtains and Claria was a mess, she kept bouncing between crying or being really angry and Rebecca kept crying and somehow I ended up taking care of everyone. Talked Claria into taking Becca to aunt Susan’s, and she got angry over it at all, wanting to know why I wanted to break up the family, but then just shrugged it all off and agreed like it was nothing.” 

Well hey that at least answered the whole why the little girl got dropped off randomly, not Claria’s idea but Davids. Gavin shifted and really wished these chairs were not metal, or that he had brought a drink in with him. 

“I think we went back to the clinic, I, uh, honestly was kind of asleep during the drive.” Yeah flipping randomly to nights was murder, so could cut some slack on that. “Went through a back door though, I guess, and it looked like a clinic, there were a bunch of people there, more doctor vampires and some normal people. Some of them knew more and talked a lot, we had to fill out paperwork like a normal doctor visit, Claria did most of it so I wandered. I think everyone there was dying, some of them were really bad off, couple of them had other vampires with them taking care of them. It was like some group thing that was happening, someone said they were doing things in batches to better perfect the process as they went. Sounded like some stupid science experiment and that really should have told me something but I just wanted to be okay. Besides pretty sure I wouldn’t have been allowed to leave anyway, I don’t think anyone could.” 

Well they were hitting the land of creepy now in this story, making Gavin lean forward slightly because the idea of leech doctors doing experiments on people was nightmare worthy. Even Nine looked vaguely unhappy with how this was unfolding. 

“So we all get the stupid paper gown things and get changed, taking turns in a couple bathrooms because we’re all supposed to be in the same room for this thing, we got have like assigned beds in this one really big room. Do the normal things of asking way too many questions and then everyone is getting put to sleep, because was supposed to be easier, less a shock to the body or something. And then I woke up dead.” 

The aunt flinched back and full body turned in her chair to openly gape at him, “What does that mean?!” Oh boy, here we go, she had totally not figured it out or drawn conclusions on where this story was going. “You can’t just- just- wake up dead!” Her voice went super high pitched, to the point Nine flinched outright and David raised his hands to his ears. “That doesn’t work, you can’t just- it’s impossible! You can’t say things like that, you can’t! They did studies, they proved it was impossible, they promised it was impossible!” Oh nope, she figured it out. “David tell me you’re not one of those-those vampires!” She was still in her chair but Gavin figured it was only a matter of time at this point. 

“Ma’am, Miss Dawely, why don’t we take a moment, I can take you to the break room and we can get a cup of coffee.” Gavin stood slowly and moved around the table, hoping she would listen to him because she was breathing way too fast and he totally understood her. He did, but if she passed out things would likely go downhill from here. David had shrank back into his hoodie, tugging the hood further so the edge brushed his nose with his head ducked. Pretty much everyone needed a few moments. 

Susan stood and almost ran for the door, scrambled for the handle and escaped out before even Connor managed to make his way to her from his spot against the wall. Gavin ran a hand through his hair to tug on the end and cast a glance around the room, “I’ll take care of her, just give us a bit.” And he followed out, not terribly surprised to find her standing in the hall, hands balled into fists and shaking slightly. “Come on, I can make a mean cup of coffee.” She gave a jerky nod, likely not even really hearing what he was saying but she followed and that was what counted. 

The break room was empty, which was not a surprise for the night shift, really the only ones that hovered in here on nights was Anderson or himself, and Gavin was pretty sure he spotted the old man catching a nap without his babysitter breathing down his neck. Motioned for her to take a seat and set to do exactly what he said, at this point Gavin was pretty sure he was close to being willing to murder for some caffeine. Did not help that his shoulder was killing him and it was slowly spreading across his chest, should have put the brace back on after the impromptu ASL lesson. Absentmindedly rubbed at the stitches and watched the coffee machine do it’s magic. 

“What am I supposed to do now? How am I supposed to... he’s one of them.” The venom in her voice was only matched with how very lost she sounded and Gavin really wished she had waited till the coffee was done. Fucking shit. Fine. Went and took a seat across from her at the high top, trying to scramble or something to say here before deciding fuck it. 

“Look I hate leeches, the lot of them, they’re creepy twisted little fucks. Or maybe I used to hate them, still working on that one, but I have learned they don’t all suck. I’ve been working with Nine for a while now and yeah at first I kind of wanted to set him on fire, but he’s a good guy, better than me at any rate. So maybe look at it this way, he’s not dead, he’s not dying, pretty sure he’s not in pain or anything like that. You’re not going to have to think about burying him in the next few years.” He really did suck at giving heartfelt speeches and yet he kept having to do this, what the fuck. “So how about be happy for that and give it time to make peace with the rest.” The coffee machine finished and Gavin stood because he didn’t really have anything else to say to her, either she would be okay or she would not. 

Dug out two mugs and just made both of them how he liked for the sake of ease before offering her a mug that she took automatically. “How am I supposed to explain this to Becca?” Which hey was progress he guess, still shrugged though, “How were you going to explain him dying?” No matter how it was looked at it all sucked and Gavin could not believe he was sitting here trying to tell someone to give the idea of vampires a chance. How was this life anymore? 

She sniffled and curled in on herself some, shoulders bowed down and Gavin gave her time to work through it. “I don’t like coffee.” The words were softer, and Gavin blinked at her a moment, almost thinking she was pulling his leg but she pushed the mug away and what. “Alright, that’s not human right there.” There was a weak laugh as she shoved strands of hair out of her face and sniffled again. “Yeah, been told that before.” A pause as she gave a sigh, “Okay, sorry, I just, I don’t know, but I’m better now, we can go back.” Gavin eyed her a second, almost wanting to ask if she was sure, but mostly just wanting to hear anything else the kid had to say, so nodded and shuffled back for the interrogation room, totally grabbed her mug of coffee to bring with him though. 

_______________________________

Paperwork was a nightmare, even with stealing the notes that Connor took and printing out the transcript of the whole thing, this entire case was a nightmare. Vampires turning humans into vampires when that shit was supposed to be impossible. Except according to David out of a group of maybe thirty he said only one other person got back up, so it was clearly still a work in progress. If this got out to the public there was going to be a hot mess, a panic even, and likely the stupid ones that would be all on board with the idea of signing up for this fucked up experiment. Gavin kind of regretted not throwing the whole case at Anderson when he had the chance, only mostly though. At least now they had a lot of leads to follow up on, the kid had given over his cell, recalled a few places that Claria had dragged him, some names of other vampires and more. 

They started with the clinic, because by some miracle geo tagging was turned on for the kid’s phone, plus he was an idiot and never turned off location services so his google account literally tagged everywhere his phone had been. Technology was great. Gavin had even managed to get someone that was not Connor, because the leech had gotten dragged back into his work when Anderson got a call for a dead guy somewhere. Officer Wynn was maybe a little too wet behind the ears but he seemed eager to get out of the bullpen and not just on patrol or domestic dispute calls. Gavin had even tugged his brace back on when Nine had grabbed it and glared at him, so progress. 

It was a normal enough looking building, though Gavin was not sure what he was expecting, chains hanging from the doorway and meat hooks in the windows? Fuck if he knew, it was just some emergency clinic place with extended hours for the idiots that got hurt after drinks or something. They looked a little out of place strolling in the front door, Gavin would likely have blended in given the brace, maaaaybe Nine if no one paid enough attention to realize he was, you know, a leech. Having a uniformed officer with them pretty much nixed blending in at all and at this point whatever, they were just here to look around the public areas and ask some questions. 

Gavin rolled up to the sign-in desk, already pulling out his badge, ended up tapping it on the desk to get the lady to look up from the computer. “Hey, there was a disturbance in-” And then everything went wrong because really that was just how everything went honestly, Gavin really decided he just needed to get used to that at this point. Lady looked up and growled, one second some bored looking nurse lady in those boring scrubs they all wear, the next second full on vamp face. Which honestly was pretty rare to see, it was like an unwritten rule somewhere that leeches tried to not go looking like monsters or something. Fuck if he knew. This lady though did the full on creepy unhinged jaw thing with too many sharp as fuck teeth and crazy eyes, it was like her skin was too tight across her face and all the bones stood out. 

Was pretty sure he had never pulled his service pistol so fast in his life and it was the stupid rolling chair that likely saved his life because she went to launch at him but the fucking chair fucked her all up by rolling, like a chair on wheels is supposed to do. And damn if Gavin never had such a great appreciation for office furniture in his life. The next blur of movement Gavin was pretty sure was Nine going over the counter because crazy nurse lady was not in his face so that was the only thing that made sense. 

Gunfire behind him had Gavin for a second honestly wishing he had managed to snag Connor along for this bullshit, he was going to trust that Nine had the crazy nurse handled. Not that turning faced him with any better odds, two leeches, both of which had been patients, or maybe not clearly, one body on the ground. Hey Office Wynn was earning points for this, hopefully they all made it out of this for Gavin to like buy him a coffee or something. “Detroit Police, freeze!” Alright that should have been said before Wynn shot someone, but Gavin said it now even if he was pretty sure no one would fucking listen. 

No one fucking listened and instead one of the guys moved forward, closing the feet between them far too fucking fast and Gavin honestly just automatically fired, except the problem was that he was too fucking used to dealing with humans. So he shot to incapacitate, unlike Wynn’s head shots, a human you take out their knee and funny this but they typically go down. Vampire you take out their knee and they apparently decide to try to eat your face off in retaliation. Seriously how did CyberLife end up with leeches that could do weird snake shit to their jaws and go ‘eh that’s fine, let’s just not mention it in marketing’. Gavin wanting to meet that person and shove their face in the way of a pissed leech. Managed two more shoots before the leech was on him and they both went crashing backwards, but Gavin kept his face firmly attached so steps in the right direction. 

Better was that the gun was trapped between them, muzzle digging into the vamp’s chest so Gavin emptied the magazine into him while the leech went to wrap cold fingers around his throat. Why was it always the face or throat? A second later and the vamp was gone and Gavin was pretty sure that Nine just flat out punted the leech across the room. Gavin got to his feet, already dropping out the empty clip and fumbling for his spare with half numb fingers. Maybe needed to start carrying more than one spare. There were more vampires now, because yeah of course, these ones from back rooms, a few even wearing the stupid doctor jackets. Wynn was still up but looked utterly terrified, not that Gavin could blame him right now, but things seemed at a pause, which hey right now was great. Gave him time to free his right arm from the brace, see this is why he kept not wanting to wear it, crazy shit kept happening. 

“Going to try this again, Detroit Police, you have openly attacked an officer, you need to stand down.” Was worth a try, right, of course it was since everyone had stopped, fuck if he knew why and fuck if he cared. The lobby was a mess, Wynn had managed to drop the other vampire, the vampire Nine punted was not getting up or moving from his dent in a wall. Gavin was not going to look back for the nurse but he was assuming she was down for the count. So four leeches down and the three of them were still up, hey that was pretty good. Nevermind none of the vampires looked like they were going to be surrendering, “Wynn, run.” No point in whispering the words when everyone would still hear him, and had to give credit where it was due, Wynn went to a full sprint for the door. 

A doctor broke off from the group that had spilled out from the back to go cut Wynn off and Nine lashed out and that basically just started round two of everything going wrong. See the problem was that a human really cannot stand up against a vampire, that is a no brainer, they were faster and stronger. Did that change Gavin attempting it anyway, fuck no. Stuck to the pistol as long as he could before there were two almost in his face, flipped the empty gun in hand and swung. Almost had time to take glee in that flash of surprise and pain from the vamp. Bright side it was clear one of them had never been in a fist fight the entirety of his existence and was easy to basically play keep away with, getting the other leech in the way or mostly dodging. Shit side was the other one seemed to mostly know what he was going and somewhere into it just shoved the other vampire out of his way. It was all downhill from there. 

So that he woke up at all was more a surprise than realizing he had been knocked out, mostly because Gavin had pretty sure that last blow would have broken his neck, sure fucking felt like it for half a second. So waking up was great. Waking up in his own fucking handcuffs was not great, or the murderous headache that had black edging into his vision, not that there was a whole lot to look at. Looked like an emptied supply closet or something equally stupid, except the door was a huge metal thing. “Are we in a fucking walk in fridge?” Talking fucking hurt so was pretty sure there was bruising around his neck, again, seriously the bruises from Connor’s angry session had just finished fading. Mother fuckers. 

Nine looked like shit, looked how Gavin felt honestly, nose and lip bleeding along with a gash on the side of his head and maybe a broken cheekbone. Also handcuffed but they were giant clunky things, the leech restraining ones that were fucking heavy as shit so Gavin refused to carry them. Likely Nine had them on his person, so they were both in their own handcuffs, yeah this was embarrassing as fuck. They had been smart at least and had Nine’s hands behind him, and Gavin was half sure his wrist from broken from how it was twisted. So no great conversation was going to happen then, alright then. Nine watched him looking terribly unfocused, like he was not really taking in what was happening, shit could vamps be concussed? Gavin had no fucking idea but he was leaning towards yes right now. 

Gavin grumbled and closed his eyes because fuck if his head was not trying to explode, hell maybe he had a concussion. It helped to have his eyes closed at least, could almost think a little clearer, weigh the options right now, because apparently they were kidnapped by creepy doctor leeches that experimented on dying people. Fucking great. Really was not too sure why they had not outright killed either of them, not that Gavin minded of course, just seemed odd. Grumbled a few curses before dislocating his thumb on his right hand and slipping the cuff off, there was a sound from Nine that had Gavin peering at him. The vamp looked almost distressed, brows furrowed and lips drawn thin, it made Gavin snort at him, “Yeah not the worst thing right now.” Barely fucking felt it honestly, or snapping it back in place. Could not do the same for the left, there were pins in more than just his wrist for that hand, but he at least technically had his hands free. 

“What are the chances Wynn made it anywhere?” Asked just to ask, because really Gavin had been starting to like him, shit did not even know the guy’s first name, damn. Nine just stared at him and alright not much help there, okay. Gavin took a breath that burned and worked on getting to his feet, hand against a wall to help, had to do the normal check the door just in case he would get some luck. Nope. So instead looked around the room, still mostly sure it was a walk in fridge that thankfully was not on, maybe that was the best luck he was going to get. The room was pretty much empty, there was a shelving unit against the back room and the lights above. 

A moment later Gavin was taking it back, the bit about luck, because there was a mouse trap of all things, one of those old fashion types. He grabbed it and went to Nine, more leaned against the wall and slid down than honestly sitting but it worked out. “Let me see your hands.” Worked on taking the mousetrap apart, freeing the trigger pen and then trying to fight with the spring, working one of the corners back and forth to snap the metal. Not the greatest tools, but seriously he had done with worse. Nine was swaying slightly so Gavin shoved him to lean against the wall with one shoulder and bent to try to focus on his task, hard to do with half his vision black and in shitty lighting. Took longer than he wanted it to before he got the first one to unlock and then turned attention on the second, figured might as well get Nine completely free before dealing with his own metal bracelet. 

Nine gave him a slow blink when Gavin dropped the cuffs on his lap and Gavin shrugged, “Wasn’t born a cop you know.” No reaction and he was guessing that Nine was far worse shape, well shit, reached out to cup the vamp’s face, “Hey, I need you to talk to me, anything I can do?” Up close it was more obvious that Nine was completely out of it, eyes were bloodshot even. He had been stripped of his jacket, hell Gavin was missing his jacket even, but it looked weirder for Nine who was always perfectly put together. “Nine, come on, focus.” Was it just him or did Nine look paler than normal? Maybe it was just the blood on his skin though. 

Finally Nine moved, signing in jerky motions, partly because of his fucked up wrist and partly because he would just pause mid sign like he forgot what he was doing. It was creepy and honestly pretty scary as shit. ‘They took blood.’ Gavin stared at him a moment trying to piece through that, and he was going to blame the fact his head felt like it had been shoved in a blender for it taking him long moments to figure it out. And then he mostly just stared, “Oh.” That was likely bad, right, sounded bad, would explain the lack of healing at least? Glanced around the room again like something would magically appear, nothing did of course. 

Gavin rearranged to stretch his legs in front of him, back to the wall and sitting next to Nine. “Alright, so, I was thinking.” Paused to swallow and close his eyes a second against the pain, “I don’t have enough whites for a full load of laundry, so maybe we can share some laundry loads.” Was it completely the fuck off topic, yep, did Gavin have anything else he could say without going into a long string of curses that he just did not have the energy for? Nope. So fuck it, they were stuck in a locked metal room and both felt like shit. Glanced at Nine and hey at least he looked confused instead of just dazed. “Saves water or something, right?” Gave a shrug and oh that fucking ached like he was being stabbed with ice picks, stupid move that, would keep that in mind. “Also can you maybe keep your blood on a different shelf from the creamer, one day I’m gonna be half asleep and terrify the shit out of myself.” Seriously he had shifted the creamer between three shelves and somehow it never mattered. 

‘I want your help with the litter boxes on the main floor.’ Gavin ignored that Nine’s hands were shaking and some of the signs were incomplete and took some guessing at. “Yeah, alright.” Was fair enough, he had been pretty much adopted by the black fluffy one, like she went to Gavin over Nine, something that Gavin maybe lorded over the vampire a few times. “Does it say something that it takes being kidnapped and locked up to talk house chores?” Because yeah they had pretty much skipped over that talk when Gavin moved in and just floundered around on who did what. Nine was a clean freak, no doubt about that, so Gavin had tried to step up and clean after himself, he thought he was doing great at it. 

Nine blinked at him before answering, and shit even his blink was slow motion, ‘Stop leaving hair in the sink when you shave.’ Now that was unfair. “Hey it’s my bathroom, don’t clean my bathroom.” How many times had he left clothes on the bathroom floor? Boxers and all. Ugh. That was not a much better thought than wondering how long they would be locked in here, or if Nine would snap and try to eat him or something, because he did look like shit. Fuck. “You think we’re still at the clinic?” If so then should be no more than a day, someone would notice when they never report back or show up for the next shift. Gavin had left word where they were going, was just procedure, automatic even. So there was that, hopefully. Except Nine motioned a ‘no’ and Gavin closed his eyes with a sigh, yeah that figured. “Fucking vampires.” The huff of air was an agreeance from Nine and it almost made him smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am hoping that this will have two more chapters. That is my best guess right now to finish out the case plot line at least. But really at this point fuck if I know anymore? This was originally only supposed to be a single chapter and now it is 54 fucking pages. How did this happen?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this point this really should have a different main summary, but I fail at summaries... this chapter brought to you by insomnia and cats.

Never thought that being kidnapped would be so fucking boring. Not that Gavin had ever put much thought towards being kidnapped, it had never been high on his list of things to do in life or anything like that. Supposed he should have tried to sleep, Nine had dropped off at some point, or Gavin was really hoping he was just asleep. Kind of hard to tell with someone that did not have a heartbeat or breathe, Gavin had stared at him for a little while and when Nine randomly shifted he thought he was going to die of a heart attack. So Nine was asleep at least, and Gavin was well aware that sleeping while he could would likely be a smart idea, might help his head if anything else. Had even laid across the floor, stretched out and almost comfortable given he was on a metal floor, had to be more comfortable that Nine shoved into a corner the way he was. 

Sleep was not happening, his head hurt too fucking much to let him even attempt to sleep, and he was stressed out, go figure, every time Gavin closed his eyes he thought he heard something and was wide the fuck awake. If he tried to roll on his side it felt like he could not breath, but on his back it felt like something was sitting on his chest, yeah sleep was not coming. So when there really was noise from outside the door Gavin was awake and on his feet, only now thinking that he should have tried to take the shelving unit apart for some type of weapon. Damn it. Was blaming that on the possible concussion. The door swung outward and Gavin jumped the first poor sucker that was in sight just because he could, he was pissed the fuck off, in pain and just done. Took some pleasure in the surprised yelp that cut into a pained sound as both the doctor coat guy and Gavin toppled down. Got in a few punches before being literally plucked off the guy, arms around his torso to drag him back and toss him back towards the fridge. The world dimmed in blackness but Gavin still rolled to his feet, would have tried something else but there was a tug on his pants leg that had him pausing. 

Nine was at least awake, if not looking very functional, he looked worse in fact and that was not the accomplishment to be aiming for here. Still he shook his head no so Gavin paused, panting heavy through his nose and trying really hard to not waver like a drunk person and pretty sure he was only half succeeding. The vamps looked slightly surprised that Gavin stayed put and that only made him snarl at them, angry all over again. “What the fuck do you want? What the fuck did you do to Nine?” Alright his priorities needed some work, just maybe. The guy he had gotten a few hits on shook his head, “Sit down.” 

Really at this point Gavin was not even surprised that he just fucking sat, like it was his own idea, his body just doing what it was told without his input. Was only down a second before scrambling right back up and taking a step forward, “Breaking your fucking face this time.” It was a promise really, if Gavin got so much of a chance he was making sure this leech would not be giving orders again. There were three vampires mostly in sight, at least they were smart and brought backup, likely not against him though, after all they did not look terribly concerned by the pissed off human threatening them. Which meant they had thought that Nine would be up and moving. 

“Well you could, but then I might not be inclined to bring you anything.” The guy shrugged and nudged one of his vamp buddies so he got passed a bottle of water and a pre wrapped sandwich. Tossed both of them in without much care, “Be lucky I argued to feed and water you.” Both items slide across the floor and Gavin ignored both, and ignored that they made it sound like he was an unruly pet.

“Oh yeah, so fucking happy, great customer service, while we’re at it how about a suite upgrade, somewhere with a view maybe, a bathroom, a bed, not a goddamn walk-in fridge.” Well at least being concussed did not affect his ability to snark and bitch, small things, right? “Or hey breakfast for everyone you decided to lock up would be a step in the right direction.” Because Nine was the one looking like he could really use a meal, and alas water and some convenience store sandwich was not going to cut it for him. Was never a great thing when the bad guys looked at him like he was being the idiot, but nothing else was said, they only stepped back and swung the door shut. “Fucking shit.” Grumbled words and Gavin sank back down because his head was hardcore spinning and he felt like someone took a sledge hammer to his back, thanks to be so casually thrown. “They’re totally expecting you to snap and eat me, huh?” 

Which was just shit really. Did not even look at Nine to see if he had an answer to offer, they both already knew the answer. Still Gavin at least reached for the water, there was still the lingering taste of blood in his mouth that was annoying him. Yeah kidnapping was not getting higher on his list of shit that was worth it, drank half the bottle in a few gulps before scooting to lean against a wall again. “Alright, for real, any timeline on how long you are going to hold up?” Timeline that Gavin had to start wondering when Nine was going to kill him for a fast meal. Nine shaking his head was not helpful at all and Gavin let out a breathy sigh and remembered last second to not thump his head against the wall. “Great.” Closed his eyes and tried to think, only to have the worst sound of nails across chalkboard ever assault his ears, or in this case nails over metal floor. 

Cut a glare to Nine and the vamp simply starting signing, slow and careful, like he was having to think out his movements ahead of time. ‘Not going to lose control in such an undignified fashion.’ Leave it to Nine to still try to be fancy, made Gavin snort at him, “No offense, but I’ve seen the reports on starved leeches.” They were few and far between though, granted, even when CyberLife had been a ruling body and going strong everyone had fast realized it was best to make synthetic blood easy available. No need to encourage accidents to happen. Even when the whole uprising thing had been a problem and being investigated to be stopped there were times synth blood was pretty much thrown at the problem. Just in case, or more like to keep wild leeches with nobody holding their leashes from having to go nom on people, even CyberLife had been smarter than that. Thank fuck. 

Nine honestly glared at him, and if Gavin ignored the signs of dry blood or how damned pale the vamp was, it was almost like they were at work and Nine was glaring at him for saying something in asshole-ish. Because asshole-ish should be a language. ‘It is not going to happen.’ Well he looked so very sure on the matter, Gavin just let it drop because it was not worth arguing over right now. “Alright, well going to try this sleep thing again, at least wake me up if you’re going to kill me.” There was a huff of air that might honestly have been a growl more than a sigh but Gavin grinned and decided fuck it Nine would make a better pillow than the wall. So pretty much casually fell against him and made himself at home, even ended up lifting Nine’s arm and draping or across his shoulders to nuzzle better. “Or wake me if one of the fuckers comes back, still want to break that one guys face, tell me what the fuck to do, pfft.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Connor was wringing his hands so hard that he felt two of his fingers break and cringed at the sound, ducking his head when Hank outright turned and swatted at him. “Fucking hell Connor, stop that!” 

“Sorry.” It was soft, lost under the sound of Office Wynn chuckling at them, and Connor glanced at the hospital bed, reminded again why they were here. Wynn had been reported as officer down fairly quickly, a civilian had called in the emergency and saved his life all in one. For both making the call and because the woman had a concealed permit and had shot the vampire that had been attempting to kill Officer Wynn. She was only a few halls over, shock had kicked in her asthma rather badly and by the time the ambulance had shown up she had needed treatment as well. She was undoubtedly in better condition than Wynn, even if she had done a freak out at Hank and Connor both when they visited her, not because Connor was a vampire, but because she was loud about not wanting to go to jail. She had at least calmed quickly when Hank reassured her there were multiple witnesses that swore it was a case of defense and that she had done the right thing. Sometimes humans were so confusing. 

Wynn was better off than he could have been, given everything, there were ten dead vampires total, including the one in the street that had gone after Wynn. The lieutenant and he had already been to the clinic and walked it, leaving Connor to mostly piece it all together, tracing the order of attacks. Thus the order of deaths and who exactly was responsible for which body. Three dressed in everyday clothes, likely posing as patients, two of them shot and taken down by Officer Wynn, the third was shot several times by Reed but taken down by Nine. The desk nurse was all Nine. There were two vampires in doctor coats taken down by gunshots from Reed, another three taken apart by Nine, and then the one in the street taken down by the civilian. Signs of fighting spread across the lobby, blood from all parties but Connor had talked it all out and evidence backed everything. 

Really it was impressive, setting aside that nothing like this should have happened at all. Everything Wynn conveyed matched perfectly though, and there was no dancing around the fact that there was a group of vampires murdering people in their attempts of turning them, and outright attacking police officers when faced. This was going to be a nightmare, even kept under wraps and not leaked to the press this was going to blow up at some point, there were civilians in the street that at least had seen the attack on Officer Wynn. 

All of that was troublesome, but most of what was bothering Connor was that it was Nine that was missing. Maybe they did not get along like Connor had hoped and tried for, they were doing better than they had been months ago. Somehow working with Reed had mellowed out Nine, which Connor did not understand given Reed’s own brash nature, but then Reed had also evened out after being partnered with Nine. Now they were both missing however and Connor was convinced it was his fault. If he had not kept pushing at Nine then maybe he would have reached out, if he had not let Markus talk him into turning up on Nine’s doorstep then maybe Reed and Nine would have waited for him to check out the clinic. Nine at least might have wanted to wait, knowing there was a possibility of walking into other unknown vampires, but Connor had pushed and let Markus talk him into turning up with everyone and now Nine was missing. 

“My sister, did you know I have a sister? Best sister ever, she’s a brat but she’s great, she’s on her way. But yeah, my sister, Charlotte, she cracks her fingers and it drives everyone up the wall.” Officer Wynn was currently being highly affected by pain medication and easily distracted, but he was so very earnest and easy to get answers from, Connor had talked to him previously at the station, he was a good person. Never had really cared what Connor was and had been one of the few that welcomed him back. So it was easy to offer a soft smile at him now and be patient, make allowances that humans were different, they dealt with pain differently. “That’s not what you asked, uh, Reed, well he told me to run and covered me, well I mean I guess he did, heard gunfire behind me anyway. Don’t think Nine carries a gun. Does he carry a gun? Connor do you carry a gun? You should carry a gun, or a taser, at least a taser, maybe you both can sign up for taser safety classes together. But Reed told me to run, and had a clear shot to the door so I just did, didn’t even think about it you know, I should have stood my ground and stayed. Shit why didn’t I stay? Should have stayed, but he said run and I was fucking terrified. Hey do tasers work on vampires?” 

Very easily side tracked, but most of his rambling was helpful, Connor had thought it would have been Nine that made a path for Wynn to escape, to hear that it was Reed was surprising. Lieutenant Anderson shifted slightly in his stance, and gave a soft ‘yeah’ like it made sense to him, which Connor made note to question later. “Alright then, I think we’ve gone over everything a few times.” They had, but mostly because Wynn seemed to go in the most random circles and had to be lead to a point after going on about another point completely. “You rest up James, don’t try to slack off to skip work.” And somehow that was funny because Officer Wynn chuckled again and grinned far too happily for being laid out in a hospital bed. 

“Yeah, I’ll do that, with the resting, otherwise Char will kill me, so resting. Yeah. Let me know if they get found, Reed and Nine, they’re okay, weird but okay.” That was an adapt description if nothing else, even Connor would agree to that, and Hank just shook his head and turned to leave. 

Connor followed along and tried to not fidget again, terribly unhappy at this whole situation, technically everything should be handed over to the FBI at this point. The clinic had enough paperwork laying around to support the experimentation on and murder of humans. Fowler was fighting to keep it, tooth and nail, loudly at that, and at first Connor had been confused by this, sure that the Captain would have been happy to hand such a mess over. Hank had tried to explain it to him when he questioned, that it was personal in a sense now, taking two of their own, that there was no love between the DPD and FBI, there was even the point that the FBI still had no vampire connections on their teams. Hank had been a lot more colorful in his explaining, but that was what it came down to, and Connor understood, agreed even, but still had to wonder how long Fowler could manage to fight things. 

After folding himself into Hank’s car Connor finally gave in and pulled out his quarter to worry at the edges of the coin, knowing better than to do anything else that would have Hank grumbling or snatching it. “You thinking hard enough I can hear it, what’s going through your head Connor?” In the lull of the car the world was muffled for a handful of moments, moments that Connor cherished really, everything narrowed down to just both of them in this space. Connor pulled his attention up and tried to offer a smile, which apparently did not go how he wanted given the bluntly unimpressed look he got in return. 

“I keep trying to figure out why exactly Nine and Reed were taken, it logically makes no sense. Keeping anyone against their will brings in too many possibilities of something going wrong, there is no way of absolute control.” They would have to do suitable damage to Nine to have any chance of keeping him controlled, for that matter Reed would not easily be kept either, which was worrisome. “There is no history of kidnapping otherwise, everyone involved thus far has volunteered, there is no reason to take them.” It was a better alternative to finding them both dead, but that was still likely at this point, more likely than finding them alive. It simply did not make sense and it was eating at him. 

There was something of a shrug from Hank as he finally started the car, the engine rumbling to life and then the stereo kicking in, “Well people don’t make sense.” That only made Connor frown, because most of the time vampires did still follow some general path of their actions making sense logically. “We’ll go through all the places the kid mentioned, you said you got your buddies keeping an ear out, just wait in no time both the idiots will be back and bitching about the whole thing.” Hank paused a second, “Well Gavin’ll bitch enough for both of them.” It was a nice hope, and Connor wanted to believe in it, but he was not sure that would be the case at all. Something just was not sitting right with him, as much as he wanted to get Nine back safe and sound, there was no reason why he would be kept alive. Unless there was some use he could be put to, and that was what worried Connor. 

At the station was a surprise waiting for them, Claria had turned herself in. There was a soft ‘huh’ from Hank, and Connor even tilted his head slightly surprised at the news. “Alright, lets get her talking.” The words were grumbled but Connor noted the lieutenant towards the detention cells without stopping at the break room or his desk, even if he seemed unhappy about it. Someone had tried to explain it to him yesterday, on why everyone was grumpy over Nine and Reed going missing, after all neither were known as being outgoing or friendly. The overnight staff was small and kept to themselves. Still as Miss Chen had put it, ‘they’re assholes, but they’re our assholes, people can’t just steal our assholes’. Connor had to protest Nine being called an asshole, but no one really listened to him on that. The point was it was nice to know that everyone was equally upset about fellow officers being taken, it had not even been brought up that Nine was not human. It was... nice, if not for the reason. 

Claria was a small woman in a sense, drawn in on herself and under feed, by his estimate it looked as if she was bordering on over a week without feeding, which made no sense given David’s own story. She barely looked up when Connor entered the room, Hank opted to stay in the observation area, stating that he put up with enough crazy vampires thank you. “Good evening, my name is Connor, I am a detective for the Detroit City Police.” It was better to introduce himself to other vampires, it lessened the chance they immediately linked him to titles like ‘hunter’, and he much preferred the name Connor over any assigned number. Claira did not seem to care given her silent snarl, lips curled up, but she did not meet his eyes either. 

“You have done written statements admitting to the murder of Sarah Dawley, mental manipulation of Michael Dawley and the kidnapping of Rebecca and David Dawley, thank you for your cooperation.” Connor folded his hands on the table and offered a small earnest smile, just because she was being off putting did not mean he should set aside manners. “May I ask what brought you to turning yourself in?” Start at the beginning and build his way into asking if she knew anything that could be linked to Nine and Reed.

Watched her take a breath and hold it before looking up, her eyes a steady dark crimson, almost black, a sharp sign of starvation. “The police are a better host than CyberLife, I’m hoping.” Connor stared at her, running through her words a second time, then a third before blinking and she gave a ‘hmmph’ in reply, licking her cracked lips. “Did David come here? Do you know where he is?” Given how she leaned forward and the softer tone, he was going to assume she genuinely cared, Connor wanted to glance at the one-way mirror, as if he could see any reaction Hank would give. 

Ended up answering her, in the hopes it would help her relax and be more willing to talk. “David Dawley sought out Detectives Reed and Nine, he is currently in a safe location.” Claria sagged slightly, head bowed over and sigh escaping her. 

“Good, good, I’m glad.” Whispered words before she pressed on, “It’s CyberLife, they put out a, a offer really, a request maybe, it sounded perfect though, I don’t know how they got my email. I didn’t even understand half of what they sent me, test stuff and fancy words, but I got enough to know there was a chance I could help David.” She looked back up, catching his eyes and looking to be silently begging him to believe her. Connor met her gaze silently without otherwise reacting and she flinched, “I at least demanded that I provide the blood for him, I didn’t want a chance of someone else getting a say over him, he doesn’t deserve that.” 

Well that would explain her state then, that it was not that she was starved, but rather had lost a large amount of blood and was still recovering. Brought to question where the other donors were however, if there were close to thirty vampires that donated blood it should be noticeable, unless they were being kept out of sight, or were dead. “Do you have any proof that it is CyberLife conducting experiments?” Not that Connor was even sure what they would do with such proof, CyberLife could only be brought so low given they were the only distributor of created blood. It would be hard but not impossible to correct that, Markus was still dealing with the government on a weekly, if not daily, basis. 

A nod on that, “Emails mostly, I think a few voice mails? The emails have more.” 

“Do you have any information about the kidnapping of Detectives Reed and Nine?” Somehow Connor was caring more about that than the idea of taking down CyberLife, he was not sure what exactly that meant however. However Claira shook her head, looking surprised and confused, this was news to her. “Someone will be in shortly to get information for your email and voicemail, please cooperate with them.” Connor stood and tucked his chair under the table automatically. The implication that everything linked to CyberLife was staggering, the company had been mostly dismantled in the aftermath of the uprising, they were more a shell of what they used to be. 

Hank was waiting for him in the hall, looking hagrid and stressed, “I’m gonna have to wait for Jeff on this one, this is fucked up.” Yes that was to be expected, a report simply forwarded to the captain would not exactly circle the full problem at hand. “You go on and head out Connor, I’m sure you got shit to do.” Connor stared at him a second before Hank rolled his eyes and made a face, oh he meant to go contact Jericho, legally not what should be taken as a first step. Connor dipped his head into a nod and smiled, “Yes lieutenant, let me know how the meeting with captain Fowler goes.” Hank simply waved him off and wandered for the break room, likely to get coffee for his wait for more acceptable morning hours, sunrise was fast approaching. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Getting the shelving unit apart was harder than it should have been, Gavin would have to give credit to whatever manufacture the thing had, it was fucking solid. However Gavin was great at being destructive, and given enough time and frustration and he could break pretty much anything. It gave him something to focus on for a while, something to distract him from the fact that Nine had started shivering a while ago, or that he had bared teeth, fangs and all, at Gavin. Was better to destroy something, even if he really wanted to take one of the metal bars to a wall, even if he knew it was just because he was restless and angry at the entire situation. He had broken down and picked at the stupid sandwich even, pulling it apart to eat the bits he wanted, because you never ate the mayo from a convenience store, just never. If he was going to die it was not going to be from some shitty food poisoning. 

Movement from Nine’s corner had him pausing a moment, reaching for one of the metal bars that Gavin had freed from the unit already, not really sure if he could take a swing at Nine but fuck it he might try if pushed. Nine worked on standing, slowly, carefully with help of the wall and even then Gavin watched as he wavered, he was not going to make it up on his own, so was feeling pretty foolish for thinking Nine was going to go super murderous mode. For fucks sake he literally just toppled over, making Gavin blow out a sigh and move to help him, not really sure why Nine was wanting to get up now when the entire time he seemed just fine with his wall and corner. Still brought his bar with him, not really wanting to go deliver himself as a snack, “Hey, what’s up?” Almost asked if he was okay, thankfully caught the question before it could fall off his tongue, that would be stupid as fuck. 

Edged closer and finally when Nine barely looked at him Gavin offered a hand, not too sure if he would stay on his own feet but whatever, it at least made Nine blink at the hand. Confused, like the hand was magically floating there, and it took a long moment before Nine followed the limb up and stared at Gavin like he was surprised somehow. Yeah the vamp was not anymore with it. There was a sigh from Gavin before he just grabbed Nine’s arm and hauled him up, ignoring how the world dimmed slightly, he was just getting used to that at this point. Fucking concussion. Said something that Nine clung to him, said nothing good, and for a second Gavin was pretty sure they were holding each other up, which was just great. Nine nodded at the door and for a moment Gavin just stared at him, not comprehending before Nine actually motioned towards the door with a hand and Gavin finally at least worked on getting them facing the door. 

Then it was a stare off with the door, and Gavin had to slightly wonder if maybe Nine had just lost his marbles, that was part of starving, right, imagining things? Time crawled past and Gavin shifted slightly to try to balance better, “Uh, what are we waiting for?” Because as great at this was and all, he kind of wanted to sit back down now, he was getting light headed the longer they stood there. Nine of course offered him nothing at all and Gavin tried really hard to not sigh, or curse at him, would not do any good anyway, and not like Nine was in any shape to go on long conversation topics. 

Thankfully things were answered, in a shity way, when the door swung open suddenly, and hey Gavin was happy he had a bar in hand, maybe he could smash someone’s face in, like that fucker that gave commands. That would hundred percent improve his day. It was not the little dweeb though, but a lady that stood there and Nine stiffened at Gavin’s side so he was going to take this as a bad thing. It was however just her, no little minions with her, and she did not look the type that fit in with the rest, she was dressed all fucking fancy like she was going to a casual business party. She cast a cold glance over both of them before shaking her head and lightly pushing the door so it swung open the entire way. “Disappointing but expected, come along.” And turned on heel and walked the fuck off, leaving Gavin to stare at her because was she fucking serious? Only reason Gavin moved was because Nine tugged him to honestly go after her, and he took a few steps before his brain caught up.

“You fucking know her?” Hissed the words, well aware that lady likely could hear him, likely she was another leech after all, but needing to ask anyway. Nine nodded even as the lady answered, like the rude ass eavesdropper that she apparently was. 

“He does. I was not expecting to find him however, I was told it was Eight that got caught up in things he should not be messing with. This is not a welcome surprise, I had higher expectations for you, Nine.” 

Uhh, okay then. What Gavin was taking from that was that she was a stuck up bitch, likely previously linked with CyberLife because he was assuming she was referring to Connor. Hard to tell if she was like middle management of this whole fuckupery or if she was a really weird rescue party. Gavin would guess, given his luck, she was middle management or higher, because that was just how shit rolled. He was however learning that wherever they were was fucking huge with too many halls, so seriously did they have to be shoved into a walk-in fridge? What the fuck. 

She breezed through a door and Gavin was really tempted to turn a different direction at this point, so far the halls were empty, at some point if they turn and limped away there would be an emergency exit somewhere, right? Instead he walked in because really the best they could do was limp away, and Gavin was figuring that would not exactly cut it right now. The new room had a bed, but given it was one of those weird hospital rolling beds Gavin was not terribly thrilled with the new location honestly. 

“Sit down, both of you, before you fall, honestly.” She sounded exasperated and hey Gavin was almost there with her, even if she had a point, Nine was starting to sag and Gavin was not sure if he personally was going to throw up or pass out first. Rather not do both. Instead he helped Nine onto the bed, because in better lighting he looked like shit run over, more like a corpse at this point than a person. Well, look on the bright side, Gavin could hopefully say at this point he had seen Nine at his worst, long as they both lived through this it just meant Nine could not say a damned thing the days that Gavin looked a hot mess in the morning. 

Lady took a step towards them and Gavin raised the metal bar at her, “I will attempt to put this through your face.” Attempt, maybe not succeed, but hey he would try. Did not help that Nine was not giving him back his other hand, instead seemed terribly content to outright cuddle his arm. Which was getting worrisome, and going back to the idea of possibly having to pry Nine off of him. 

She raised an eyebrow at him but folded her hands neatly, leaving her poised and far too collected for being threatened. “At the moment I would say he has till sunrise, and you about the same, so can you afford to be turning down any help I might offer?” Uhhhhh, brain stalled a moment, only a moment, before Gavin outright scoffed at her, because that was some manipulative bullshit right there. She thinned her lips at that, clearly not amused, “I will give you time to come to terms with the situation then.” Uh-huh, but she was leaving, and this was a step up room wise, so he would take the time at least, so watched her leave, not surprised at the click of a door lock. 

“Right, Nine, come on, I need both hands here.” He wanted to look around, there were cabinets against one wall, lower and upper with a sink in the middle, and another door, fuck yes he wanted to go digging through everything he could. Even if he kind of wanted to just lay across the floor and close his eyes for a bit. Tugged at his arm and Nine finally let him go, even if he frowned and outright pouted, which was just weird as hell. “Thanks, just uh, stay here, don’t fall off the bed.” Nine did not even seem to really hear him at all and yeah okay maybe Nine was not doing too good at all, shit. 

Moved for the cabinets and gave no shits about making a mess, outright dumped drawers on the floor, not even sure what he was looking for, but it mostly looked like medical bullshit. Medical bullshit all wrapped with CyberLife’s logo stamped, if they were in the creepy ass tower Gavin was going to flip a fucking lid. Oh wait, wait, wait, did that mean it was CyberLife doing the testing and experiments then? What good would that do them though? Past the fact they were pretty much the only ones that sold synth blood? If the public found out there would be riots. Would really be easier to think this shit through if his head was not exploding. Okay, reasons CyberLife would try to turn people. Maybe could make it a selling point? Market it to those dying from medical conditions that had no other hope, that would spend crazy amounts to just live. Fuck, market it to rich assholes that spent too much money on plastic surgery anyway, chance to stay young forever. Okay. Okay, fucking shit damn. 

One of the cabinets was a mini fridge and he opened it not too sure what he would find at this point, and somehow both surprised and not at all shocked at the blood bags. Huh, stupid mistake, but at some point even shity luck had to give in, so Gavin scooped up as many as he could and stood, ignored the dizzy spell and turned for Nine. “Hey, lookit, you get lunch.” Did not even make it to the bed, and for a hot second Gavin’s life flashed before his eyes because he was pretty sure he was going to die now, this was it. Nine was not on the bed, but right the fuck in his face, Gavin jerked back as Nine reached out and yep, this was death knocking. 

A second later and Gavin felt like an idiot, because yep there was a splatter of blood, from Nine outright ripping through the plastic of one of the blood bags and alright, great, now if he could just convince his heart to crawl from where it lodged in his throat things would be great. Nine dropped the bag and casually reached for another one, not even really looking at Gavin, and Gavin let him before carefully side stepping and going to drop the rest on the bed. Somehow not at all surprised that Nine had followed almost on his heels like a silent shadow. Okay, one problem kind of solved, left Nine at the bed and went back to the counter, kicked the fridge shut, figuring if Nine needed more then he could get the damn things. 

The mirror above the sink caught his attention just because he really did look like shit, leaned closer and made a face at his reflection, a grimace really because omph, between both eyes being bloodshot and with more red than any other color or how grey tinged he was looking. Yeah. Good times. Nine might honestly look better than him right now. That was saying something. Maybe the lady had a point, to a degree, Gavin had considered it hours ago, yesterday maybe? Fuck if he knew how much time had passed. He was getting worse and worse with the headache and dizzy spells, and it was not just hunger and lack of water. Would not be outside the range of possibility that he had been hit too hard and had internal bleeding that was casually doing him in. 

Well for right now Gavin took a drink of water from the sink and tried to ignore his reflection, then went back to the cabinets, might as well see what else there was at this point. Sadly there was nothing exciting, some more random medical stuff he knew nothing about, gloves and aprons and towels and cleaning stuff. He could spray bleach at someone? Might just stick to the metal bar, go figure. The second door was a small bathroom, which hey was great and put to use because it was there, what other reason did he need at this point. 

Was highly unfair that when he returned to the main room Nine was looking almost like his normal collected himself, never really thought the vamp had much color to him but after seeing how pale he could go there was a big difference. “You better?” Asked mostly just to ask at this point, and when Nine honestly answered it was a relief honestly, he had been past the point of signing for a good while. ‘Much, thank you.’ There was a moment of hesitation before he continued, but not the brain barely working type of pause, more the how to word something pause. ‘You should come sit.’ Yeah that did not honestly sound like a horrible idea at this point, now that he had pretty much trashed the room. That he had to knock blood bags into the floor to sit barely even mattered at this point, whatever. “You, uh, got blood like, uh.” Gavin just ended up motioning, a hand waving over his own face because it pretty much was just smeared nose down, with some splatter higher even. Seeing Nine embarrassed was different, and weird, this whole situation was weird though at this point. 

Still Nine seemed to care because he went to the sink and Gavin was cool with that because it mean he could basically just crash on the stupid cot and close his eyes for a few minutes. Listened to the running water and tried to not think for a moment, it did not work out too well. “So, lady chick, she’s not lying through her teeth is she?” Was not even sure why he was bothering to ask at this point, he felt like shit, worse than that time he got the flu was and stupid and tried to push through it and got bronchitis on top of that. Good times. Would not be surprised if his his brain literally crawled out of his ears at this point. 

There was a soft click that was the warning before the door opened and Gavin did not even bother to open his eyes, fuck it he was almost comfortable, Nine was up and moving, he could deal with it. “Ah I was told this room had been emptied.” Yep same lady, and haha, that would be the problem with listening to other people, worked out though so hey. Shit, was going to need to pay attention, was pretty sure they were both doing that creepy leech thing of not making any sound. 

For starts Gavin at least opened his eyes and then mentally cursed at the overhead lights. “The fuck you want?” It was pretty much just sighed out, and he sat up, a hand going to his head at the onslaught of dizzy bullshit that hit him. A hand steadied him and thankfully it was Nine, so Gavin did not mind too much. “I mean with all this kidnapping and shit, just cut to the chase yeah.” Nine shifted to be in easier line of sight before saying anything, ‘Likely needed me to attack you.’ Well yeah Gavin already got that bit, with the whole apparently taking blood from Nine and locking them both in a metal room, not hard to figure that bit out. 

Lady made a soft displeased sound, “I had been hoping someone had exaggerated the depth of your disability Nine.” Alright so she was a bitch, confirmed now, and Gavin cut her a glare that likely was half off the mark but whatever. “Hey, if you can’t keep up with the conversation than fuck off. You got anything past that Nine?” 

Keeping up with two conversations at once was not going to happen right now, normally sure Gavin could keep up with signing and a vocal convo, right now lady spoke back up but Nine was signing so Gavin just tuned her out. ‘They have not perfected how to turn people yet, clearly, but from I gathered from David Dawley I am assuming those turned take after the type of vampire that turned them. In his case I am sure it was Claria’s blood that was used, she is a low level, genetically designed towards certain personality types, intelligence over physical prowess. He came off as one of those originally created for household work.’ 

Honestly Gavin never really had gotten that, the whole there being type of vampires, but that had been a big market point CyberLife made, that they had lines that were meant for certain types of labor. So alright, whatever. ‘My line was limited to Connor and myself.’ Oh hey, Gavin could figure out the rest, mostly, kind of, CyberLife was butt hurt their best got away from them and wanted to try to make more, legally their genetic department had been taken apart, equipment sold off and hordes of people laid off. 

Lady’s patience ran out or something because she moved forward, a blur of color and Gavin did not even get to flinch before Nine was in her way, which was great because he was sure if he moved he was going to fall off the table. That would suck. “You are running out of time, he is still dying.” The words were hissed out, clipped and angry, which pffft she was not the one apparently dying here, so fuck her and her being angry. Still seemed damned sure she wanted Nine to go all nom-nom and attempt the mostly impossible, which means CyberLife had maybe figured out why people kept dying from the attempt of being turned? Okay, okay, Gavin just needed to do what he was good at, annoy the fuck out of her and see if she spilled, he could do that. 

“Let me get this straight, your grand plan here was, what kidnap two cops, which hey shit move right there, have your minions fuck up which vamp they managed to grab which is pretty funny if you think about it. Try to get said vamp to snap and eat someone, without explaining what you want the vamp to do, so then you’d just have a pissed leech and a dead guy on hand. Yeah, you weren’t made with higher level thinking in mind, were you?” Gavin gave a soft snort thinking about it really because the whole thing was pretty fucked up. “Alright but so still, shit fails because hey Nine is stubborn as fuck, I appreciate that by the way, so backup plan is drag us to a room that has lunch for Nine and then what, bore me to death?” Had to give a clap just to be an asshole, because hey this is his being slowly bored to death, being kidnapped sucked. 

Amusingly she did not cut him off, but he was pretty sure she was glaring, she was just shorter than Nine so meh whatever. Oh hey an idea, “Wait, wait, ohh it’s gotta be someone the leech knows or something, halfway likes maybe, or spends time around? That made more sense in my head.” It really did, but hey he was rolling with it now, “I mean David said only one other person walked out, that’s a lot of fuck ups, if Nine is right, and lets face it Nine is always right, then it was Claria that turned the kid and that’s gotta mean something. Something outside of your control, otherwise you could have tossed any old human in a room with half dead Nine, one of your own even.” Would think if it was a random stranger then Nine would have been more willing to in fact munch on them. “Like leech cooties by association or something is step one.” Which was down right fucking creepy to think about, so maybe he was just going to not think about it. 

Silence. Like silence to the point Gavin leaned enough to peer around Nine, half sure the lady had disappeared or something, but nope, she was still standing there, looking both disapproving and angry, still. That was talent really. “I’ma take the lack of arguing as being right.” Just to put out there. And now she broke, a low growl slipping past her careful control and eyes flashing red, Gavin grinned at her just because he fucking could, hey if he was already dying then why not at this point. “That’s a hard thing to make a selling point out of though, huh? Gotta hang out with a leech for a while before the whole undead thing can stick, bummer.” Eh likely doable, but harder to control, likely there were people that would still try for it though. 

“This is your last chance Nine, before you disappoint me.” And she swept out of the room, no flashy threats or whatever, just vague words and gone and Gavin stared after her. 

“She’s a little weird.” 

Nine gave a silent sigh and signed, ‘Amanda is also trying to tell us to leave, can you run?’ Uh, what? Where in that did that get conveyed, at all? Still Gavin slipped from the cot to stand and shrugged, “Why not.” Sounded better than sitting here anyway, “You gonna explain?” Nine looked almost apologetic, a first really, ‘It is complicated.’ Yeah, of course it was, because nothing with vamps could be simple, alright sure. “Fuck it, lets go.” If he was sure this was some window given to stroll out then hey might as well try. Gavin was bringing the metal bar though, end of story. 

The door was not locked, which kind lended credibility, maybe, better was the fact the hall was still empty, worse that was simply crossing the room and making ten feet down the hall had Gavin gritting his teeth and holding a wall. Dizzy and light headed mostly, the hall was fucking swimming. Alright running was maybe an exaggeration. Being scooped off his feet was not at all helpful for a moment and Gavin slammed his eyes shut on the onslaught of darkness across his vision. Honestly did not even care that he was being carried right now, Nine was almost warm and Gavin could keep his eyes closed and it made it worth it. Mostly because he was refusing to pass out like some fucking damsel in distress, even if he was being carried like one. 

Gunfire had him paying attention again, which was great because Nine dropped him and Gavin stumbled to land on his feet as Nine launched down the hall, was this a different hall? Looked like a different hall, like a basement or something. Alright, people in the way, that was something Gavin could focus on, so he trailed slowly after Nine, stepped over someone that was not moving, noted the CyberLife uniform and otherwise ignored them. Then paused and realized that hey a gun would be a set up from a bar, even if ducking down to get the gun downright sucked and he almost face planted on the floor. Whatever. So armed, which was a step up, not locked in a room, also great, and Nine was not in sight, and that bit sucked. 

Sucked in a breath and kept going, figuring he could follow the path of destruction at least, and that worked just fine to bring him to the current active fight. Proof that Nine was not at full strength because someone had finally gotten him pinned down and Gavin fired before really taking the whole scene in. He got enough of it, Nine down and the person above him with a gun trained on him, good enough. Was not till the shot jerked the person and they turned that Gavin freaked out a little. Holy shit was that Connor? Had Connor gone evil? Weird mild mannered, must count everything Connor? Yeah sure the fucker had a temper, but he was more likely to rage quit and go run a doggy daycare then work for CyberLife, at least as far as Gavin figured. Well Connor raised his gun towards Gavin, so Gavin shot him three more times. Pretty much gut reaction to not wanting to be shot. 

Connor went down and Gavin limped closer, Nine thankfully rolled and got up, hand to his chest where he was bleeding, shot, and Gavin stared at him wide eyed, really not sure if he wanted confirmation it was Connor or word it was some freaky clone. That Nine grabbed Connor and slung him over a shoulder did not help, at all but he motioned for Gavin to follow so yeah, following. 

They were in a basement, technically at a car garage and Gavin kind of had a half a second of wanting to weep and hug a car. Better then was Nine breaking a handle and they were stealing a car, this was amazing, Gavin always low key wanted to steal a car, this was the highlight of being kidnapped. Getting to slump in the front seat felt far too nice, because fuck if he was sitting in the back seat with Connor, who might or might not be dead, or for that matter be Connor? He was dressed in CyberLife gear, so maybe not? Watched vaguely as Nine worked on getting the car to jump to life, not even wanting to ask how he knew how to steal a car. Car was moving, it looked like they were okay, nevermind the bleeding body in the back seat, or that Nine was bleeding, Gavin figured now was a as good as time as ever to finally just give in and pass out. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Truthfully Gavin had expected to wake up in a hospital, you know, if he woke up at all with the whole apparently dying thing. Instead he woke up to be stared at by angry brown eyes and Gavin flailed slightly, brain not catching up to what was going on at all. Said something that his first thought was wondering where his bar went, second thought was where the fuck was Nine, finally got around to oh hey where was he? “That was hilarious, do it again.” Utterly dry words spoken and Gavin glared because at least now he knew without a doubt this was not Connor. Creepy clone guy instead, great, this was just fucking great, his head was exploding and somehow he was on a bed with a clone watching him like he was daytime tv. 

“Who the fuck are you?” He even sounded like shit, ugh, debated sitting up and decided that was a horrible idea, he was down and refusing to move. Clone snorted at him and leaned back on his own bed a few feet away, they were totally in a hotel room, which hey step up over all, but still odd. “Really that’s your first question? No concern over your safety, question where your buddy is, maybe a hey where are you. Nope. First question is who am I?” Gavin could almost hear the eyeroll, and clone Connor was not endearing himself any better than Connor. “Since I’m so nice I’ll fill you in anyway. You’re still dying, taking your time at it too, have to give you credit on that. Nine went to go get blood since I can’t exactly stroll to the corner store, and we happen to be in a Super 8 because somehow my suggestion of the Marriott got shot down.” 

Fuck he talked too much, too many words, helpful words sure, but too many words right now, or ever, and if Gavin had the energy he might have threw a pillow at him, or flipped him off, instead Gavin gave a grunt to show he at least did listen. Mostly because he had already closed his eyes and was edging back into unconscious, noticed after a second the one bit of info there not offered was in fact a name, huh, well might as well poke on that. “You at least got a number or something?” Was guessing he was same storyline as Nine and Connor anyway, being a splitting image and all, it seemed to be a pattern so far. Heard the offended hiss that was given but there was no answer forthcoming and whatever, did not exactly matter anyway. “How about why we’re in a hotel?” Because he really would have been okay with a hospital, hated the places but was pretty sure he was past the time of needing one, maybe he could get like a late arrival discount. 

“Because my suggestion of dropping you at a morgue was also ignored.” Oh haahaa, fuck it, Gavin bothered to go ahead and flip him off, smartass fucker. “Pretty sure because he’s trying to keep you from dying for some reason.” Well hey, that was a plan that Gavin was on board with, the not dying, not dying would be great, could he start that anytime soon? “Or we’re making a poor attempt of hiding from CyberLife while you casually die.” Oh yeah, CyberLife, in their latest attempt at supervillainy, had almost forgotten about that somehow. 

The door opening got Gavin to crack open an eye, not like he could jump out of bed if it was someone showing up to murder them, but maybe he would like to see it coming at least. It was however Nine, in plain clothes which was... honestly it was fucking weird, was he wearing jeans? Nope, sitting up for this, screwed his eyes shut like that would magically help and more scooted up the headboard than honestly sat up. “Holy shit you’re wearing jeans, and a scarf, are those fucking flip-flops?” He was wearing flip-flops. Flip-flops, setting aside that it was winter time, “Why’ve I never seen your feet before?” The question just kind of slipped out honestly, and there was outright laughter from the clone. The sweater could be ignored in light of the flip-flops, or that hey Nine rocked a scarf pretty damned well, huh the things he was learning. 

Nine gave a silent over exaggerated sigh and moved to set the bags he was carrying on the stupid tiny desk that all crappy hotels seemed to have, seriously they were the tiniest most useless tables that ever existed. He even went a step further and unloaded them into the mini fridge, and yet that was a lot of blood, watched Nine throw one to the clone and had to cringe because just watching sent a stab of pain. “Okay, maybe you’ll answer things better, why are we at a hotel, instead of a hospital maybe, could you at least have just rolled me out the car as you passed one?” Somehow Nine cut him a look like he was being the weird one here. Pfft. It made perfect sense thank you, being the dying human in the room he should have final say. Clone at least seemed to think it was a good idea, nodded along, which maybe Gavin should take as a sign it was a horrible idea. 

Watching Nine hesitate did not exactly strike him as a good sign, or that Clone really like the sound of his own voice. “Maybe he didn’t want to take you somewhere to watch you die? I mean I’ve been around less than two hours and can see he’s attached to you for some reason.” Seeing Nine flinch slightly was downright creepy, but Gavin was distracted from that because really Clone guy was annoying. “Okay, why the fuck are you here? Seriously?” Weird not-Connor had been on CyberLife’s side, right, with the whole shooting Nine and being at CyberLife. Instead of answering though Clone raised his hands like he somehow meant no offense and slid off the bed, “I’m just going to go wander about for a bit.” He scooped up his untouched blood packet and did in fact head for the door, Gavin glanced back to Nine like maybe he would do something. That something was just shuffling out of the way because it was a small room and Gavin half slumped down the headboard and pinched his nose with a sigh. 

At least with Clone gone Nine went to sit down, with something of a nervous energy, on the bed that was just abandoned . ‘He would be correct, at this point a hospital would not be able to do anything.’ The signs were smooth and even, thankfully not done at the normal conversing speed or Gavin was pretty sure he would be sick trying to watch. As it were once the words sunk in he almost felt sick anyway. Dying was not something that he had ever really thought out, but had half figured it would be job related, be a second too slow one day, would be over fast though, none of that drawn out bleeding to death on the ground. Gavin drew a shaky breath in through grit teeth and held it, ignored that his eyes watered, ignored it because otherwise he was going to break. This was a horrible time to break. So ignored it, swallowed down the scream that wanted to escape him and tried to think. 

“You’re going to ask me something I really don’t want you to ask, aren’t you?” His voice wobbled without his permission but he ignored it, fuck that right now. Dying sucked, it did, but could he live past dying, honestly? That should not even be an option. And maybe then he would still die because hey nothing seemed to be an exact science far as he could tell. No matter what he was dead. Nine watched him a few long moments before answering, ‘It is up to you.’ Gave a shrug like it was something easy to figure out, something easy to decide. If only. “Explain it to me.” Was not sure he wanted to know, but maybe he needed to know before he could answer anything. 

‘Right now you have fluid build up in your chest,’ Nice way of avoiding saying blood, he had internal bleeding in his chest, not in his lungs or would have known long before now. Well he kind of did go hand to hand with leeches, and of course lost. ‘As well as swelling in the occipital-’ 

“I don’t need the rundown of injuries.” Gavin knew enough on his own he could piecemeal it together if he really wanted to, just from symptoms alone, trying to dress it up was only going to piss him off. Almost felt bad for cutting Nine off when the vampire ducked his head, okay so maybe this was not a great time for either of them. “Just, skip that bit please.” Spoke softer this time, really wanting to close his eyes again and just tune out the world, like that would solve anything. 

There was a pause as Nine ran his hands across his jeans and glanced back up, hesitated a moment more before picking back up, ‘You are low enough on blood that likely should just have to feed you my own.’ That sounded so very sure, and Gavin tried to show how very unimpressed he was. ‘To be safe it would be better if I bit you.’ It was funny how that was what made Gavin uncomfortable enough to look away, internal bleeding bah it sucked to hear but okay, drinking blood was gross but really whatever, biting and woah stop the train. Really dying would just be easier all the way around, figure out how to come back as a ghost and burn CyberLife tower to the ground just because. Except he really was considering this, shit, why the fuck was he considering this? 

“I am going to wobble to the bathroom, possible be ill, glare murder at the mirror for a bit, and when I come back I’ll have an answer for you.” He needed space, without Nine watching him, but was pretty sure if he tried to go on a walk someone would call the cops, or he would pass out, smack his head and be dead for someone to then find him and still call the cops. Gavin just needed space, and time, realized he likely did not have much time when sitting up made him breathless and blind for a few long seconds. Could not even get angry at the coolness of hands pressed against him, one on his shoulder and the other against his jaw. Blinked what felt like a few dozen times and pushed through, somehow getting to his feet was easier and harder at the same time. “Just, ten minutes.” He just needed ten minutes to himself, ten minutes to figure out his life, ten minutes to decide how he was going to die. 

Thankfully Nine did not try to stop him, and shutting the bathroom door behind him felt like closing his world down to this small little area, safe and secure, at least for the moment. Almost did not want to turn the light on, but did it anyway, hard to glare at a mirror in the dark, and then did not even glance at the mirror, instead bent over the sink. Forearms resting on the cold counter top as he tried to breath through the pain in his head, the heaviness in his chest. Took two tries to turn the water on because the faucet was in a blank spot in his vision and Gavin did not want to shift to try to see it. The cold splash of water felt nice at least, it stung but it was something he knew, something he was used to at least, even cupped his palms and took a drink. That burned but it was just because of the bruising around his throat, fuck he really was a hot mess. Ended up spitting out a glob of, eh, something, was not going to go studying it to figure it out, instead just turned off the water and lifted his head enough to look at the mirror finally. 

Oh yeah, Gavin had seen corpses that looked better. Nevermind that then, closed his eyes and rested more weight on the counter top. Really wished he could think it all out logically or something, think about the details of both sides and like compare notes or some bullshit. But then dead was dead, nothing really to compare there, it was death, final and done with nothing else, just a stopping point. End of the line. Otherside of it was still dead though, everything still changed, he would just be around to realize it, to be affected by it, to have to adjust and figure out the whole being dead but still around. Blew out a sigh and straightened, glanced at the mirror again just to make a face at his reflection, annoyed and haggard. Curiosity made him grab the bottom of his shirt and lift it, traced the bloom of deep purples across his skin before dropping the fabric. Yeah, had certainly seen prettier corpses. 

Was not sure he wanted to leave the bathroom, everything felt like it was almost paused for the moment, yeah sure he felt like shit, the longer he stood the worst he felt, but at least for the moment it was just him. Avoidance was maybe a bad habit of his. 

Okay. Gavin made himself turn around, only having to pause a second to lean against the counter at his back now for the world to settle back out. Then he opened the door, turned out the light and left the bathroom, and maybe the last little shred of his sanity. In less than ten minutes, well maybe, fuck if he timed it, Nine likely had though, likely would have come knocking if he had gone even two seconds over. Nine was still sitting on the bed, his back to the bathroom door, he was hunched over, shoulders bowed and head lowered, looking defeated in a way that just looked wrong on him. Gavin did not even think about it when he sat on that bed instead of going to the other one, fuck it was closer to get to for one, and that was what he was going with. “Alright.” The answered slipped out of him without Gavin trying to sugarcoat it, without trying to come up with a reason to give. Dead was dead, but one side of being dead meant he could bring down CyberLife in person. And hey petty vengeance was something he was good at.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Errrrrrrrrrrrrrm. -halo?- I know at least one person is going to yell at me, ummm, go for it? Also, Connor just kind of snuck in there, I do not even know how, it just happened? idk


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh, mind the tags? -halo- I did in fact try to proof read though, go me.

Waking up in a tub had to be a new one, Gavin had gotten into his fair times of weird shit in his late teens and early twenties, but was pretty sure he had never honestly woken up in a bathtub. A shitty hotel bathtub at that, because there was no where else that would have yellow floral wallpaper in a bathroom but a hotel, so yeah, this was new and not in the greatest of ways. He would love to know where exactly he was, past the whole being in a tub at a shitty hotel, or maybe why he was in a tub in a shitty hotel. Maybe even what the fuck did he do to end up here? Alright well baby steps to figuring this out, he had to have done some heavy drinking the night before because that was about the only reason Gavin figured he could end up somewhere this random. 

Drunk Gavin was a bitch, except that one time that Drunk Gavin had texted him out of work and disabled his alarm, otherwise nothing ever good ever came from the after affects of drinking. Had no memory of going drinking the night before, in fact everything was a bit too hazy, fuck at this point Gavin was questioning if maybe he was still drunk. He was still sitting in the tub after all. 

So point in his favor that he was not naked in the tub, just mostly, he still had boxers on so he was taking it as a point in his favor, waking up nude anywhere was always a bad sign. Course immediately lost that point when he realized there was blood in the tub, still wet, with splashes of water, and yeah his boxers were wet. Like he had been trying to take the most fucked up shower ever. Well this went from mildly annoying to downright creepy. Waking up in his boxers somewhere random was whatever, not a first really though generally it was in a bed with a one night stand and that had still been almost a year ago since that happened. Waking up in a tub looking like he was in a murder scene though was a big fuck no.

Alright, this was fine, this was fine, everything was fine, had to be a reason for this shit, maybe he smacked his head when drunk, head wounds did bleed like a bitch and really he was not the sharpest tool when drunk. 

Carefully got up and glanced for a towel, which of course they were white, what was with hotels and their need for the cheapest, scratchiest white towels on the face of the planet? Whatever, fuck it, hotels had to know what they were signing up for with white towels, grabbed it and wrapped it around his hips at least. Thought about rinsing off but if something had gone down it was best to not go washing evidence down the drain, just for now. 

The bathroom was a tiny thing, typical for a hotel really, just enough room to squeeze in all the needed things and not much else. Gavin paused at the sink to peer at the mirror, well he did not look like shit at least, tired sure, the yellow light did him no justice at all though. So why was he expecting something else in the mirror? Bruises and blood shot eyes? “Get a grip Reed, figure shit out, and find some pants.” 

Still hesitated because it was almost nagging at the back of his mind, this feeling he was forgetting something, he was missing something obvious. Made him glance over the bathroom with a frown, not even sure what it was that he was looking for, but nothing jumped at him though. “I’m fucking losing it.” Glanced back at the mirror and frowned, still sure that something was off, he just could not put his finger on it, like he was expecting to see something different reflected back at him. Stared another second before leaning forward, scratched at the scuff on his chin and vaguely wondered if maybe sleeping in a tub was the best sleep he had gotten in a while. That was just a sad thought really, but seriously for waking up in whatever creepy shit this was he looked.... eh fuck if he could put a finger on it, was just imagining shit. Turned and opened the door, because standing around in the bathroom was doing his no good, maybe this was just a one night stand that had turned out weird. Had been too drunk and smacked his head so the tub was the best place to not make a mess or something. 

That idea got dashed when opening the door had Nine falling into the room and Gavin thought he about jumped out of his skin, “Holy fucking shit on toast!” There was no way he could have guessed that the vamp would be right the fuck there, had he been leaning against the door? What the fuck? Expected Nine to roll to his feet and glare at him, or at least have one of those silent little sighs like Gavin had done something stupid. There was nothing, and that was bad, right, seemed bad given Nine had literally fallen through the door, like he had been sitting with his back against the surface. 

This shit was hitting horror movie level of shit real fast. Glanced out across the shadowed darkness of the hotel room, lights off but little beams of light slipping in from around the curtains. Two beds but no one else in sight, no danger he could see, so Gavin knelt down, not even sure what to do. Did leeches have pulses? Would it do any good to check? 

“Don’t wake up and eat my face off, don’t wake up and eat my face off.” It was a chant under his breath, and normally it would not be a concern, but then again normally the only time he was faced with the oddity of possible sleeping Nine they were at home. Not in some horror movie hotel with Gavin waking up in a bloody bathtub. Big difference. Ended up trying to find Nine’s pulse, for lack of knowing what else to do, really there needed to be more information on vampires, at least a ‘how to tell if your vamp is dead’ guide. 

There was nothing as far as pulse went, and Gavin was not sure if that meant now he should freak out or not, tried to remember if he ever noticed a heartbeat. Was pretty sure sometimes there was, but that was around his eating schedule, right? Course it was not helped by the fact that Nine looked like shit, drawn thin and pale, like those rare times anyone saw a leech honestly drop their human act, like their bones were too sharp and skin almost transparent. 

There was blood in the fridge. 

Gavin was up and moving before he realized it, because, well it was logical, Nine needed blood. What made Gavin pause was the fact of how did he know there was blood on hand? This was just getting worse as time went on, but he was not leaving Nine here. So might as well in fact check the mini fridge, Gavin honestly screwed his eyes shut before opening the door, not even sure why at this point, in case something jumped out maybe. Fuck if he knew. Nothing happened, so he cracked an eye open and oh look blood pouches, alright, that was good, right? Yeah, sure. Glanced back at Nine, laid out on the floor, and considered how to do this. Closed the door and stood, step one, get Nine off the floor and on a bed, so went back to Nine’s side and stared down at him a moment. “Pretty sure you’d never go drinking with me, so really hoping you can explain this shit later.” Because Gavin was shit out of ideas at this point on what was going on. 

Slung one of Nine’s arms over his shoulder and braced for the weight before moving to get standing with the vampire, expecting him to weigh as much as he looked. He was taller than Gavin after all, the fucker, and even with Gavin’s sessions at the gym he was expecting it to be a struggle to deal with the dead weight. Instead Gavin almost toppled over because Nine was lighter than he looked, stumbled back a step into the bathroom before balancing and he was sure if he glanced at the mirror he would look completely bewildered. “You need the leech equivalent of a hamburger.” Would that be like a whole cow? You know he could go for a steak right now, but that was off topic. 

Tried to not just dump him on a bed, and mostly succeeded, so hey step one was done, step two would be what? Get blood down Nine’s throat? Like he was an overgrown cat needing meds or something? That sounded like a great way to lose fingers, and alas Gavin was in fact attached to his fingers. Try to wake Nine up? Well he fell across the floor, got poked at, picked up and plopped on the bed without waking, so yeah that one might be hard too. 

Well maybe grab a bag first, or a couple, just in case, then figure this out, maybe if he waved one in Nine’s face he would wake up, like it was coffee under his nose or something? The bags at least were for leeches because they had the weird little spigot and built in straw, not hit up off a hospital, which was great, one less creepy thing going on. Gavin never really stopped to think about the fact that blood really had a nice color to it, even in the darkness of the room, shook his head and collected a couple to drop on the bed. Glanced at Nine, kind of hoping he would just magically jump up, or something, but of course not, okay then, time to fight with a blood bag and possible dribble blood down his boyfriend’s throat. Partner? Significant other? Maybe figure out terminology later. 

Was surprised how user friendly blood bags were though, twist the little cap and stab the straw in and ta-da like a horrifying kids juice packet. Was his own fault that a little squirt out across his fingers, and it was completely automatic that Gavin stuck his fingers in his mouth. Did not even think about it at all, and then thinking was the last thing on his mind because that vague feeling that a steak sounded good was wiped out and replaced so easily. 

So it was two bags later that Gavin realized that yep things had gone weird here and he was thinking maybe last night had not been simply drinking too hard at a bar somewhere. Welp, shit. There was a bright side here, lack of breathing was what kept him from hypervenelating and possibly passing out, because hey that was a human thing. A human thing that Gavin no longer had to pay attention to. Still sat on the floor, knees pulled up to his chest and head ducked down because what the fuck. What the fuck. Paused a second before grabbed the third bag, because he wanted it and really at this point fuck it, it was just like, uhhhh really thick fruit punch that was the best tasting shit he had ever had. He could work through this. So maybe he was dead, undead, okay that was better than dead-dead. Tried to think as he chewed on the straw between little sips. He was clearly missing a lot of facts that lead to this, so thinking was needed. 

Last thing he clearly remembered was... stealing a car? CyberLife and shooting Connor, who might not be Connor. Nine technically stole the car, in their leaving CyberLife. Dying, because he had been dying, internal bleeding? Details he had wanted to ignore that still lead to dying, how very careful Nine had acted, worried and scared of what Gavin’s answer would be. But he had agreed, because well dead was dead and this was not exactly dead, maybe. Okay. Everything was still fuzzy as fuck, and Gavin really wanted to know why he was in the tub in his boxers, but ok, this was enough, because his head hurt and now he really wanted to curl up and sleep. Had that whole feeling of sluggishness after a really full meal, he was just not thinking about the fact that meal was three blood bags. Nope. Mini freak out done now. 

Gavin lifted his head and grabbed the alarm clock on the nightstand between the beds to glance at it, little after one, which alright that could explain some things, maybe. Because sleep was a thing that was dragging at him now, and Nine still had not moved. Took a breath, an unneeded action but fuck it, waited for his lungs to scream at him to let it out but it never came, because hey he was dead. Fuck. Ignored it for now and stood, he was still in wet boxers with a towel almost untied around his hips, he could look his for his pants, but wet boxers had to be one of the worst feelings ever. So shrugged and stripped, used the towel to dry off a bit better and then just gave the fuck up and crawled on the bed. He was terrified and tired and really just wanted to wake up later to find this all as a weird ass dream. For now he groped for the edge of the blanket and yanked it over him, then paused and grumbled before wiggling closer to Nine so he could curl against his back. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Of anyone that Connor expected to never lay eyes on again there were a few names he could list with solid reasons explaining his reasonings. Mostly because the list was either dead or had relocated, somehow he had not even considered Amanda, which in hindsight was foolish of him. Just because he did not want to think about her, rather block her from mind and memory like he could erase the damage she had done him, she was still around. Clearly, given she was standing in front of him, on the doorstep to the one place she never should be, Connor figured at this point he was allowed his pettiness when he closed the door in her face. Wished he could slam it shut, but even now he simply did not have the want or need to display unneeded force. Plus Hank was asleep. And Sumo. No reason to disturb them, not for her. 

That she knocked again made him grit his teeth, glaring at the door like it could change anything, he did not want to open the door, he did not want to see her, he did not want to hear her voice and have to try to come up with words for her. Connor wanted to turn around and go back to bed, he wanted to pretend he never woke up from the noise, wanted her to just go away. Instead he opened the door, because if she kept knocking then Sumo would wake up and come investigate and that would possible get Hank’s attention. “Move.” Clipped and cold, with an echo of who he used to be in his voice, but she listened and stepped back to the side, letting him exit the house and close the door behind him. Technically she would not be able to enter the house without permission, and Connor would never give that word, she would never be welcomed into the house, into his home. “What do you want Amanda?” Because that would be the only reason she was here, she needed something and thought she could get it from him. 

She rose an eyebrow, likely at his anger but moved past it unaffected, because really she never seemed to let things truly touch her in any sense, could talk about the weather in the same tone as exterminating an entire species. “I was hoping I could talk to Nine, however he is not home, is he here?” Connor stared at her, confused and warry, unsure why she would be seeking out Nine at all, much less why now, now when Nine was missing and gone. Or there was the spark of worry that she at all knew where Nine lived, at least there was a reason for her to know where Hank lived. His lack of answer was apparently enough of one for her, because her expression tightened, “I see, do you know where else he might be?” 

It was a struggle to unlock his jaw, to not tell her to just leave, go away already, leave him alone, leave Nine alone. Except, for some reason, some unknown possible insane reason, she seemed to care and Connor tried to find his words. “Nine is currently missing, he was taken two days ago.” It still hurt to think about, Connor still felt like he had failed somehow, no matter everyone seemed to argue otherwise. Amanda tilted her head, just a fraction, confused, and Connor wanted to snap at her, but he was not sure the words so remained silent and glaring, fully aware his eyes were red. If anyone passed by they would likely call this in, Connor was not trying very hard to look human, in the brightness of the day the possibility of being seen was terribly high. 

“He left, with his human, almost three hours ago, so if he is still missing then he simply does not wish to be found.” Those were chilling words, like ice thrown over him, and Connor blinked, several times for that matter, trying to process what she just said, what she just implied. Yes it had been stated already that it was CyberLife behind the experiments, but Amanda just basically confirmed it, simply because it was coming from her. More than that, the idea that Nine was simply out of contact was painful for some reason. Amanda seemed to ignore his reactions, the little step he took back and the flash of hurt that slid his eyes right back to brown. Instead she pulled out card holder and slid out a business card, holding it out for him to take from her, “If you see him, tell him to contact me, I am curious about his partner, if he lives or not of course, but also how exactly he caught Nine’s attention.” 

Connor found himself taking the card almost automatically, manners drilled into his actions, coded in really. “What do you mean?” Sharper words on that, what was she hinting at exactly? There had been traces of Reed’s blood at the clinic, but if she was questioning his current state that could lend weight to his being seriously injured. More so if she had in fact seen them recently. Amanda did not answer however, simply gave a shrug and turned to leave, stepping down before Connor reacted, surprised she was just leaving. Ended up stopping her, a light touch to her shoulder and she stopped but did not turn to look at him again, “What did you do to them?” That was what terrified him, if she had a hand in the kidnapping and had them for two days, she could get in anyone’s head. Things had changed, as far as Connor knew nothing could affect Nine currently, the limited information he had gotten had proven that Nine had become immune to any outside influence or affecting ability. However that was due to Reed, if Reed died that would sharply change, and Reed himself was human of course, she could go through Reed to try her hand at Nine. 

There was no one that Connor would wish to be under Amanda’s thumb or control. 

There was something of a scoff at this question, her head dipping a moment and he could imagine the twist of her lips, that flicker of annoyance before it was wiped away again. “I find it interesting that anything you were, or accomplished, before the uprising is forgiven, but you cannot give that same courtesy to someone else.” She took the last step down to flat ground, and Connor let her move away, mostly because he flinched slightly at her tone, that soft disappointment, like he had let her down in a way she would never have imagined. She was good at that though, pitching everything just to her liking, to suit her, so people wanted to prove themselves to her. There was a time he would have wanted to prove himself to her, there was maybe even a time he would have apologized. Now he could see the manipulation, but also admit she had something of a point. 

“When Nine and Reed are back safely, and CyberLife had been taken care of, we can discuss the idea of forgiveness.” That was if she was on the right side, if she really cared, if she was not simply trying to weasel her way close for some personal gain. None of that needed said, it was implied, and Amanda glanced at him now, her eyes searching before she nodded, “Acceptable.” And this time Connor let her walk away, vaguely surprised at the taxi that was waiting for her, then again he supposed she would not have a CyberLife car and driver if she was trying to show she was not standing with them. Dropped eyes down the business card, not surprised it was just her name and a phone number, no other information printed, left Connor to run a finger across the edge of it before turning to head back inside.

Had not even realized the effect being outside had been taking on him till he stepped into the cool darkness of the house, it had been easy to ignore when faced with the immediate danger of Amanda. Connor let out a soft sigh and closed his eyes a moment to collect himself, to better ignore the haloed bright spots in his vision that were already fading out. Only needed a moment before he was cutting through the house, as much as Connor wanted to curl back in bed and put everything off just a little longer, he simply could not. Not if Amanda spoke the truth, then he needed to find Nine, the only reason he would not return was if there was a problem he needed to solve first. That would have to be Detective Reed, if Reed died there was no telling the effect it would have on Nine, Connor had been against their being partnered for this very reason. Or rather because Detective Reed was reckless, not because Connor had any idea they might be taken and held captive somewhere. 

Connor stopped suddenly enough he had to touch the wall to not rock forward, because Hank was awake and dressed, pulling on his jacket now. “Finished your morning pow-wow? We got a call.” Had not even heard the phone ring, then again he had been focused on Amanda. “Apparently you threaten to eat some kid about an hour ago.” Connor blinked on that, sure for a moment he misheard, and Hank snorted at him, “Yeah makes no damn sense, but we gotta go, meet me at the car in five.” He was shoving a mug in the microwave, heating up leftover coffee, and normally Connor would have something to say on that, but instead he turned to go get dressed. The timing of this was too perfect, Amanda turning up looking for Nine, and then getting a call that they have to go out for because of possible vampire involvement. It had to mean something, now if only Connor could figure out what exactly. 

It was less than five minutes later that Connor was sliding into the car, no closer to having any idea what was going on so focused on what he could. “Where did the call come in from?” Flipped down the sun visor and grabbed the sunglasses as they fell so he could slip them on, it helped some at least. Hank jammed the key in the ignition, cursing everything from the flowers, the sun, the clouds and needing gas. “Uh, mall security has the guy, hopefully.” Connor turned to face Hank just to better get across how exactly he felt about this, the idea there was a vampire out in the middle of the afternoon, at the mall, that might threaten someone and then just listen to mall security. A vampire being mistaken for Connor, which could only be Nine, and that did not help it make any more sense, if anything it made less sense now because he could not picture that happening. So Connor stayed silent for the drive, trying to not simply close his eyes any time there was a reflection of light from the car ahead of them. He hated being out during the day, today was going to be a long drawn out affair, he at least browsed through work emails, hoping for some type of update. Even sent a text out to Nine’s number, just in case. 

Connor would admit he was maybe a little grumpy when they parked on the curb to the food court entrance, glared through the window before getting out. “Do we really think there is a vampire here?” Sullen words because this was a waste of time, and because he hated that today had to be bright and sunny, after days of clouds. The other car door slammed shut and Hank grunted in answer before heading inside, having to barrel through a group of teenagers that poured out through the double doors and paid no attention to their surroundings. Connor at least waited for them to pass before going ahead, not that the food court was much better, between skylights and the echo of conversations around them. It was a lot to take in, and Connor ducked his head as he followed Hank, thankful that one of them knew where they were going. 

Had to call out a few moments later, “Lieutenant.” Did not have to add anything else, Hank stopped with a grumble and motioned for Connor to cut ahead of him. It was impossible to miss that there was in fact another vampire in the area, at least when they were not bothering to try to shield themselves. Hank had asked for him to explain it once, and Connor had tried, but the best he could say was that it was the feeling of another predator in the area, of knowing there was possible danger. It was a soft warning, like a breeze across his mind, and if the other vampire was in fact not bothering to shield at all then Connor could pinpoint general information without needing to lay eyes on them. Since the uprising most vampires kept everything locked tightly down, at least around him. This one was not shielding so far, there was a lazy flicker of power in the air to draw Connor towards the security office. Behind him Hank was back to complaining, this time about vampires needing better places to hang out and having a proper sense of timing because some people needed sleep. Ah well, Connor could not blame him on that one. 

Slipped through the door and ended up pausing, because by sight that was in fact him perched on a desk talking to three security guards. “I kid you not, room full of scientists and blood-suckers and this toddler just trots through trailing a roll of toilet-paper. Everyone’s acting like it’s this giant poisonous snake that is going to eat their face instead of some child that’s clearly lost and having the time of her life. Was the greatest thing, room of smart idiots, so end up scooping the girl up and then people are freaking out, like I picked up a bomb, or you know plan on eating her like a chicken nugget. Oh hey!” Attention shifted quickly over to Connor standing in the doorway, and Connor side stepped enough for Hank to push in, mostly because he was confused, deeply confused. “Right well I’m betting these guys are my pick up, so thanks for getting me out of teenager hell, keep up the good work.” He glided across the room and suddenly Connor could understand now why Hank always snapped for him to walk like a real person. “Lets go.” 

Connor watched him breeze out of the office and glanced to Hank, but he looked just as stunned. “Something you want to tell me Connor?” That was a great question, one that Connor had no idea how to answer. Logically it had always been possible for CyberLife to have created more than just Nine and himself, logically he knew that, but never had seen proof to support the idea so had written it off. Clearly that was a mistake. “Go keep an eye on him, I’ll talk to the guys here.” Hank waved him off and turned towards the security guards, and yes Connor should likely watch the unknown vampire now lose in the mall. Everything felt rather numb as he turned to go do that, trying to mentally catch up that there was another vampire from his line, another hunter that he was just now finding out about. Had CyberLife kept him this entire time, or had he simply not bothered to show up before now? It could not be a coincidence that he was turning up now of all times. 

Found him outside, leaning against a potted plant just out of the way of the door traffic but in the shade of the building, Connor found he was not sure what to say here, which was not a universal problem. “Not exactly how I wanted to spend my day but I got kicked out of my own hotel room, which is pretty shitty honestly, knew we should have gotten two rooms.” There were a few things to be found in that sentence, and Connor latched on to what he could, already drawing the lines where he could. 

“You left CyberLife with Nine.” Hotel room, Connor had not even considered that, if Nine had gotten out after sunrise and was injured he would have needed somewhere immediately out of the sun instead of taking the time to travel home. He needed to look up all hotels around the tower, or simply get the answer from the vampire in front of him. “Where is he?” Took a step forward to try to get the other vampire to focus on him instead of casually people-watching, it was not a wonder he had security called on him with how he studied the people passing by. 

There was a snort, an honest snort, and the vampire glanced over to lock eyes with Connor, he looked amused by this, compared to Connor’s own mild annoyance. “In a manner of speaking anyway, sure I left with him. And trust me, you’re not going to want to find him yet, give it a few hours after sunset even.” Connor frowned at him but the other vampire shrugged, “He’s shacked up with his human, though pretty sure he’s not human anymore given how they made moon-eyes at each other.” 

Connor stared at him not really sure he understood that correctly, or that he wanted to understand that correctly, because this had all spiraled out of control somewhere along the way. With human experimentation that had been going on for months but they only just recently stumbled across it, Nine and Reed getting taken, Amanda showing up, CyberLife pulling all the strings, another hunter turning up and now the idea that Nine might have tried to turn Reed. Or succeeded in turning Reed. 

“Yeah, you look like your brain just got broken.” Well he might not be exactly wrong on that. “You think your human will let me crash on his couch for a few hours? I could really use a nap.” Not that he waited for an answer, instead waved and moved off, leaving Connor to stare where he had been standing before turning, watching him jog over to Hank. Really he should go follow, that was an unknown vampire talking to Hank, but Connor felt rooted to the spot as he tried to sort through everything. When he did move it felt like he was moving underwater, because the other vampire was getting in the back of the car and Hank was yelling for him to hurry up. This was going to be a very long, and strange, very strange, day. 

Somehow though the three of them ended up at the house, with Hank tossing pillows and a blanket on the couch like this was just a normal house guest, his only reply when asked was a shrug and a gruff, ‘no charges are being pressed and I just want to go the fuck back to sleep.’ Which left Connor standing between the living room and kitchen unsure what to do now, he wanted to go to the station, or start visiting every hotel near CyberLife Tower and spirling out, but he refused to leave with another vampire in the house. Sat at the kitchen table and folded his hands on the table as the house seemed just fine with settling down and sleeping, no other questions or drama made. In a fashion it was not really fair that Connor was the one silently freaking out and no one else seemed to be having any problems. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gavin’s next wake up was a better one, then again not waking up in a tub would be pretty much a step up from most things, he could at least say that his mind was clearer and he could connect the dots on how he had ended up in the tub. Yeah, he owed Nine an apology for that, huh, damn. Which thinking of, Nine was not in bed and Gavin grumbled about this fact, sat up and made a face when he found the vamp watching him from the other bed. Alright given how things had gone it made sense that Nine would be careful, there was that flash of memory of Gavin getting really close to draining him dry. He had not taken turning gracefully or well the first couple of hours. Some things were still a little fuzzy, but he remembered Nine trying to be careful to not hurt him, remembered him being very determined to go through Nine for the idea of a meal. “You okay?” Likely should ask something more than that, but really was hard to come up with how to phrase that. 

So hey I know I apparently was really determined to chew through your throat, not my fault you taste good, forgive me for that?

Oh geesh. Letting that go, easier to settle on an easier question and hope that Nine read into it more than that. Nine tilted his head as he signed back, ‘Are you?’ Well that was a fair question, so Gavin shrugged and pulled the blanket closer to pool in his lap. “Feeling less murderous, so I’ll take that as a good sign. Woke up earlier super confused on what was going on, that was, uh, interesting.” Interesting was a word anyway. There was a shift in Nine’s expression, the tiniest little change that Gavin picked up on much easier now, relief as Nine relaxed a little more. “Sorry for,” A pause as Gavin waved a hand in the air, “everything really, sorry for everything.” There, he said it, best he could, not the greatest, but really not like he ever had to apologize to someone for trying to eat them. 

Nine rose a single eyebrow, which really how did he do that shit, and shook his head amused, which Gavin was taking as a sign of forgiveness. ‘It was not unexpected.’ Easy for him to say, Gavin was not used to murderous urges, flashes of temper and wanting to put his fist through someone’s face sure, but there was a sharp difference. Let out a sigh and rubbed a hand over his face because this was all super weird and he was not sure exactly what was suppose to happen now. He was dead, had died, but not, and this was just awkward as fuck now. Best move through this a step at a time then, “We have anyway of getting clean clothes?” Was worth asking, to know if he was going to try showering in the shitty hotel bathroom or not. Nine cut him a look that answered that and Gavin shrugged, “Was worth asking. So my current plan is this, I’ll cab a cab and make a sheet toga because eh why not, go home, drown myself in the shower, then we can sit and talk this out.” Really stealing a sheet was the least of the worries, his clothes were trashed so had to make due. 

‘I will rinse out the tub.’ And see this is why Nine was amazing, no trying to shove logic into things or arguing, just went with it, so Gavin nodded and went to do his part. Great thing about hotels, they all had that stupid book next to the phone with nearby food joints and places to visit, and taxi companies listed. There was even a little notepad with the hotel address listed and Gavin had glad because he had not thought that little bit through yet, so really the call went without a hitch. He had no idea where his cell was, wondered if he should just report it stolen, was pretty sure he could not exactly write CyberLife asking for it back. 

Standing around a hotel at six at night in a sheet was not the weirdest thing Gavin had ever done, it did not even make the top ten honestly, though Nine looked embarrassed enough for both of them. Gavin just rolled with it and waved at people as they passed, really this was Detroit, there was way crazier shit on the streets then some dude in a toga. Wait, he was a vamp in a toga. Somehow that made this whole experience even better. Was almost disappointed when the cab did pull up, the driver leaning over to check they were his fare, hey the driver did not even bat an eye. Then again cab drivers saw all types of shit. Great thing about cabs, the decent ones anyway, they had the annoying tablet hooked up to pay, and Gavin could sign into paypal, joking that he left his wallet in his other toga. The driver gave no shits because the tablet gave it’s little happy ding of payment going through and that was all he cared about. 

Never had Gavin been so thankful to be home, or that Nine had the weird hand scanners to unlock the door because fuck all if either of them knew where their keys were. Standing in the living room they both hesitated on separating, because it just felt weird, simply wandering off their respective directions. Gavin down the hall and Nine upstairs. They had spent fuck knows how long together and now they could be in different rooms and neither one of them moved. Gavin chewed on his bottom lip, made it about four bites in before he cut his lip and cursed, hand moving to his mouth as he scrunched his nose up at the tang of blood. Nine batted his hand out of the way and cupped his chin to tilt his head up into better lighting, like it was a serious injury instead of Gavin being an idiot. Still, Gavin froze as Nine swiped his thumb across the smear of blood, almost hyper focused on the moment, was only when Gavin swallowed nervously that Nine seemed to realize the moment and met his eyes. 

“New plan.” Gavin breathed the words out, battling with himself to not lick at the thumb still pressing against his lip. “Shower then have amazing ‘fuck yes we lived’ sex.” It was amazing to watch Nine weigh those words, how the calm facade dropped enough to show the flash of heat through his eyes. They had been doing a slow crawl in their relationship, taking things carefully, and really making out like teenagers on the couch was great, but not what Gavin wanted right now. There should be a point that skipping the long build up just made more sense, and dying should be that point, so they were past that now. Nine ducked the few inches needed to kiss him and Gavin was fast to move with the action, surging forward and scrambling to bury fingers in Nine’s hair to yank him even closer. 

Gavin had figured out how to not cut his tongue open before, because otherwise that would have gotten real old read fast, however there was a difference on figuring out how to dance around Nine’s fangs and his own apparently. The fact the kiss took a bloody turn should have been a problem, it would have been weird before, now it was a toss up on who growled, though Gavin was pretty sure it was him. It was a little strange he could differentiate his own blood from Nine’s, but that hardly mattered when it got Nine to press impossibly closer and yank at the knots holding together his sheet toga. Barely registered the sound of ripping fabric before Nine scooped him up, and fuck if that did not go straight to his dick. The height change did things too, nice things that let Gavin take control of things for a second, let him wrap legs around Nine’s waist and grind down as he ran his tongue over Nine’s teeth. Vampires had weird sensitive zones, or maybe it was just that Gavin was bold enough to go flirting with danger when Nine went to nip at his tongue and Gavin just managed to pull back in time. 

Not being breathless was different, weirdly different but not bad, helped when Nine laid wet kisses down his neck because yeah that was distracting but they were still in the living room. “Hey, hey, pick a room, don’t care whose.” Just not the living room, shit if they made it this far then they deserved a bed. There was a scrape of teeth over his collarbone and Gavin yanked Nine’s head back by his hair, “Bedroom, now.” That growl was all Nine, deep and threatening and holy shit that should not be a turn on but fuck it, Gavin grinned at him with too many teeth and tugged again. “Come on, you’re wearing too many fucking clothes.” Finally Nine seemed to hear him, or at least got the gist of the demand because they were moving, cutting through the house with sure steps. Gavin took the open chance to rock down on the bulge nestled against him, yeah way too many clothes in the way. 

Was thankfully a bathroom they ended up in, because as much as Gavin would love to go the route of being thrown on a bed, well they both needed a shower, there just was not a way around that. Had to give some credit to Nine for keeping his head long enough to realize this detail. Down side was that he put Gavin down, which yes made sense with the whole needing to strip but did not stop Gavin from clinging to him anyway. Would have made sense to get the shower running while Nine stripped, but fuck that noise, Gavin instead eagerly went to undoing Nine’s pants, not at all finding it fair that somehow he was still fully dressed. “How the fuck have I not seen you pantless before?” They lived together, they did couch cuddles randomly, and somehow pants were always a thing. 

There was a huff of air that was a laugh and Gavin rolled his eyes and scraped nails over the jut of Nine’s hip as he finally pulled the pants down. As good as Nine looked in jeans, this was mouth watering. Nine walked them backwards for the shower, managing to multitask with kicking his pants off and Gavin was fine with that because new plan was two seconds after some soap and water he was getting Nine’s dick in his mouth. Honestly if it was not for newly heightened senses it might be a thing that was happening now. The splash of freezing water made Gavin yelp and jerk back out of the spray, then glare a moment later because that was totally done on purpose. “Fucking leech.” Hissed the words out because holy shit that was cold as hell, and Nine just stood there like it was nothing, the fucker. Not helped when he signed a simple, ‘not yet’ with a fangy smirk. 

The cold water was good for something at least, which was clearing his head enough to focus on showering, the actual act of getting clean. Really showers were underrated things, they were amazing, they were heaven on earth, at least once Gavin elbowed Nine out of the way and flipped the water to something above freezing. Nine kept trying to slide a hand across his skin and Gavin was petty enough to step just out of the way each time. Not that the game made it too far before he was being shoved against a shower wall by the very solid press of Nine. Time seemed to pause a long moment, careful and perfect in a way, something soft in Nine’s gaze, like Gavin was something to be cherished. Which yeah, he got that in a way, after too many brushes with death, after seeing Nine lethargic and so very pale. This time it was Gavin that ended up going to toe to kiss Nine, letting it be something calmer between them, less frantic but still just as driven. 

“It’s fine.” Whispered the words between them, maybe trying to convince both of them and not too sure he was succeeding. Right now everything was fine though, later Gavin could not make any promises, but right here and now everything was perfect. Nine leaned into him, a soft sigh escaping him and Gavin wrapped both arms around him to hold him trapped a moment. The last however long had sucked, but things would be okay, he would make damn sure of it if need be. “Come on, let’s finish, yeah?” The mood had shifted so likely no blowjobs, which was disappointing in a way, but also not, this was okay too, with Nine stepping back now and pulling Gavin with him into the water. There was more touching now, which really Gavin was going to have to have talk with his libido because mutual washing should not have him wanting to drop to his knees. 

This really was the first time he got to see Nine undressed, the first time he got to trace fingers across pale skin to trace moles that peeked through soap suds. He was fucking perfect. In contrast Nine seemed intent on tracing over every scar he could find etched into Gavin’s skin, it was a struggle not to go on the defensive, not to jump into explaining. It helped that there was no pity on Nine’s expression, just a vague sense of curiosity, if anything, which made Gavin snort. “Yes, I can in fact keep myself alive without you around.” Not that it had been shown much recently. Thinking of, Gavin himself went to ghost fingers over his most recent wound, the stab that had still been healing with stitches, now there was barely a mark, the faint line of a scar. Huh, well at least Nine would not be shoving him back into a stupid sling. Nine made a face at him, lips pursed and eyes narrowed and Gavin rolled his own eyes, “Okay, okay, fine, I’ve gotten in less shit since being stuck with you, congrats, you’re a good influence somehow.” There was a smile on that, small and terribly conceded really that had Gavin shoving at him with a laugh, prideful leech, gesh. 

His laugh was cut short with Nine ghosting a hand across his ribs to curl fingers over his hip, solid and heavy, there was a question in his eyes and Gavin was realizing that maybe neither of them had any idea what they were doing. Well technically he knew, but it had been a while, a long while, longer since he had been with anyone he cared about. Alright, fuck it, at this point he had literally died, right, so clearly he was not chasing Nine off. Ended up taking a step forward to get Nine to move back, putting them out of the water, and Nine against a wall, and Gavin really did love how big this shower was. “You really are fucking gorgeous.” And somehow his, which shit if Gavin understood that, but hell if he was going to question it either. Nine broke eye contact on that, glancing away almost shy and that, fuck, that was perfect, he had no damn idea the picture he cut every single day. Gavin framed his hands across Nine’s hips, thumbs soothing over jutting hip bones in soft circles, debating what the fuck to do for a moment. 

He had an earlier idea, really could just fall back on that right now and be perfectly happy, there was nothing stopping him now, and that had him grinning rather pleased with himself. Slid back half a step before sinking down, expecting the normal protest from his knees and realizing that was not going to happen after a second. Huh. This whole leech thing had great benefits. Gavin would admit he was out of practice, but it was not exactly something he just forgot, and that Nine was already back to half-mast was a confidence booster. Though never did Gavin think he would have to do a mental chant of ‘mind the fangs, mind the fangs’ before saying fuck it and mouthing at the base of Nine’s dick. This was likely a horrible idea given he was on day one of having sharp teeth, but meh. Did not stop him from taking as much as Nine into his mouth as he could, hollowing his cheeks and outright groaning at the feeling of Nine filling out in his mouth, nudging at the back of his throat. Swallowed and realized again that not needing to breath was amazing, it let him flatten his tongue along the underside and work on taking just a little more. Enough he could nose at sparse hairs at the base of Nine’s cock and hold still long stretched out moments, his throat tight around Nine. 

There were fingers tugging at his hair, enough to almost border on painful, and Gavin pulled back with a wet slurp to glance up, letting the flushed tip rest on his lips. Almost had to smirk at the look on Nine’s face, surprised and off guard, pupils blown wide so his eyes looked more black than anything. Traced fingers across Nine’s thigh, let his knuckles brush against his balls before wrapping fingers around him, jerking twice before offering a teasing lick to taste him. It was different, not as sharp in a way, more of a mild tang, humed a moment before bobbing back down. There was a thud as Nine smacked his head back against the wall and Gavin hummed again before trying to work out a rhythm between his mouth and hand, twisting his wrist with every upstroke. Did not take long to have Nine tugging at his hair again, trying to pull him back and yeah that was not happening, instead Gavin swallowed him back down, hand dropping to cup and massage his balls. 

Did not pull back till there was a shaky exhale that could even be heard over the water, leaving Gavin to lick his lips and mentally pat himself on the back. Was just like riding a bicycle. Getting up was not a thing that would be happening quickly though, not when he was still painfully hard at this point. Rested his forehead against Nine’s hip and only then realized that Nine was shaking slightly. Gavin almost asked if this was his first blowjob, like opened his mouth to ask before his brain caught up to him and he bit the question off, nope, bad idea. Ended up dropping a hand to his own dick and just fisting with a bit of pressure had him groaning and bucking into his hand. So really not his fault that Nine dropping down surprised him, he had been a little distracted in that moment. Drew a breath through clenched teeth, and blinked at Nine, brain not exactly processing, less so when Nine peeled his fingers out of the way and replaced them with his own hand. 

The whine that escaped him was almost embarrassing, only almost because Nine looked terribly enraptured, Gavin ended up surging forward to kiss him. Needing to kiss him or he was going to growl at the slow dragging pace Nine was setting. Allowances had to be made for figuring out angles and pressure but fucking shit Nine was trying to kill him. Nipped hard at Nine’s lips and that finally seemed to give him the idea to pick things up, the drag of those sinfully long fingers making Gavin thrust into the motion. It was Nine that licked into his mouth, dragging his tongue across a fang on purpose, which simply had Gavin chasing his tongue with another sound. For a second he was not sure which was better, the wash of blood that purely tasted like Nine or the hand along at his dick with just enough pressure that it was pure bliss. At least until there was a press of Nine’s thumb at the slit of his dick and that won out, and had Gavin breaking to kiss to gasp, curling tighter against Nine. Gavin held onto Nine like he was a lifeline, eyes screwed closed as he pressed sloppy kissed across Nine’s shoulder and neck. Another few seconds and even behind closed eyes the world whited out a few long seconds, thankfully Nine kept him from slumping down, pulled him close and ran a hand along his back while Gavin worked through his climax. 

When Gavin was stable enough to pull back he caught Nine’s proud look and had to roll his eyes, even if he smiled, “The fun part is standing back up.” Because even if amazingly his knees were still not protesting, standing was still a bit iffy on his end. So of course that meant Nine practically picked him up as he got to his feet, and Gavin possibly pouted at him and clung, even with Nine maneuvering them both back into the water. Well fine, they maybe needed to clean back up again, Gavin did not bother to protest with Nine taking over washing both of them, only nuzzled closer and licked a line of blood off Nine’s chin. He chose to ignore the amused huff Nine gave at his actions, instead just turned his nose up and made a face at him. 

The rest of the shower was calm, like the outside world was holding it’s breath for them to just have their moment, and really it made Gavin drag his feet on wanting to get out, knowing he was going to have to face the world at some point. There was only so long they could spend in the shower though, so when Nine cut the water Gavin sighed but did not complain. “We are a couple days late for work, huh?” Which really should just mean it would not matter if they ran any later, but Nine nodded and yeah there was stuff to do, before CyberLife decided to try anything else. “Meet in the living room in fifteen?” Got to watch Nine wrinkle his nose for once and give a huff of air as a sigh before nodding. “Hey I would vote for lazing about, but you would get all uppity about it.” Just to point out as he padded out of the bathroom to head for his room, in a much better mood for the day, gee could not imagine why. 

There was a cat, the adorable black fluff that he had totally pretty much adopted from under Nine’s nose, on his bed and Gavin cringed, “Ah shit, could anyone even check on your guys while we were gone? Huh?” Not like the cat answered him exactly, but she was not screaming her head off, so hopefully she would wait till he got clothes on. They had one of those big gravity feeders and a water fountain, but both cats were pretty spoiled, and the water fountain needed filled every few days. Gavin pretty much pulled on whatever was on top of his clean clothes pile, putting away laundry was just something he never got around to. Paused to dump some food in for the fish and wondered if Nine was already going around hitting up the rest of the tanks in the house. So at some point needed to set up so someone could come check on things if anything happened in the future, at least Tina, she had a key to his last place and Nine might be okay with her since she was not a leech. Ah shit, he was going to have to tell Tina he was a leech. 

Shit. He was a leech. 

Okay, yes, Gavin knew that, he did, he just... kept forgetting, here and there. “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing.” Not that the cat cared, but still he wanted to say the words, so he said them, then grabbed his second favorite jacket and headed for the living room. Really fuck CyberLife, it took forever to break in a good leather jacket. Normally coffee would be what he would go for, since Nine was not waiting for him, but normally did not exactly apply anymore. Huh. Could vamps drink coffee? Was pretty sure Connor drank water sometimes? Shit he had no idea. Aw there was still half a package of oreos on the counter, and Gavin would deny that he pouted at them, but he really did. Could vampires eat? They should be able to, right, just maybe did not need to? Fucking hell. He was going to have to play twenty questions with Nine at some point. 

Nine who did breeze into the area, with fish food in hand, which answered that yes he had been feeding all the fish, seriously the house had too many fish tanks, it was weird. “Can I drink coffee anymore?” It came out as more of a demand than a random curiosity, but he needed to know. The surprised blink he pulled from Nine was oddly adorable, less helpful however his half shrug while he put the fish food back under the counter to free his hands to answer. ‘I am honestly unsure.’ Gavin stared at him, waiting to see if there was anything else to add before he grumbled, “How the fuck do you not know?” Nine gave a look that said he was being slightly annoying but still answered, ‘I have never had the pressing need to try it before.’ That was bullshit, alright it was fair, but still bullshit, sometimes forgot that Nine was technically like a year old or something creepy. Fucking vampires and their weird age thing. 

Gavin glanced at the coffee machine before sighing and letting it go, maybe not the best time to go testing this, maybe he could ask someone else, someone had to have tried things past blood. “Are we just going to the station?” Not like they could call ahead, unless they stopped somewhere to pick up new phones, or found a public one. Nine dipped his head into a nod, ‘I considered trying to contact Connor, but he should be at the precinct at this time.’ Oh, wait, shit, Connor. 

“Uhh, Nine, what happened to the creepy clone?” 

There was a pause as Nine seemed to process that question before signing something he had never signed before, ‘fuck’. That was it, but really that was answer enough, and Gavin groaned because that was just... great. Fucking great. “Ok, so that’s a thing to take care off, lets just go to work first.” Now that he was even sure how to take care of that, put out an APB on the guy, with side note of not-Connor? Fucking shit. “Your car is fuck knows where, huh?” Right, forgot about that too, except Nine shook his head, ‘I had the house recall it.’ Uh, what? No, wait, he knew that one, the house had a system built in, smart system thing, also connected to the car, okay made more sense. So one thing going right, he would take it. “Alright, let’s get this shit show started.” 

It said something that riding to work felt pretty normal, except Nine could not check his work email, and Gavin figured out how do to that weird thing of flipping his eyes red so kept changing back and forth just because he could. It was weird, and almost awesome, because going to red eyes took a second and then bam he could see heat signatures, which was fucking creepy. Back to normal and it went away, and then Gavin realized something that made him turn towards Nine, serious and glaring. “Please tell me it was you that thought to remove my contacts and not the creepy clone.” It had finally dawned on him the whole eyesight thing, though really no matter the answer it was creepy as fuck to think about someone with their fingers at his eyeballs. Nine cut him a look and gave a roll of his eyes, and alright so Gavin realized it was a stupid question, like Nine would have let the clone near his face. Did not even want to think about it anymore, so turned back to the window to peer closer at his reflection. 

Was weird honestly not wearing contacts, mostly because they had been colored, huh would colored contacts cover the weird vampy red eyed thing? Like be able to do the funky advanced vision without flashing bright red eyes, Gavin might have to look into that just because. “How do you guys not get headaches?” Did not even really ask the question for an answer, more just talking to himself, but Nine still snapped to get him to shift attention over. Which was still annoying, and Gavin would still like it known he was not a dog. ‘Most do not flip back and forth like playing with a toy, stop it, you’re giving me a headache.’ Gavin huffed and sunk into his seat, crossing his arms to sulk, mostly because alright he was easily amused, and now he did have a bit of a headache. Whatever. ‘Do try to have some semblance of maturity.’ So in his infinite wells of maturity Gavin stuck his tongue out, only to have Nine flick it and make Gavin jerk back surprised. “Hey!” Fine, lesson learned on that one, unless he learned how to be faster than Nine anyway. 

So maybe Gavin was nervous and showing it poorly, instead he went to picking at his nails and wishing the day was over already. Might have been easier going the route of trying to come back as a ghost and angry haunt CyberLife. Less fulfilling, less chance of blowjobs, but easier. “What if we just don’t tell anyone?” Alright that was stupid, did not even need to see the raised brows from Nine to know that one. The car parked and Gavin hesitated on getting out, just a moment before deciding fuck it, he should not be dragging his feet over not being dead, more dead, dead-dead, whatever. If someone had a problem then they could say it to his face and Nine could keep him from ripping off their face. Really that was likely about how it would go, Gavin was just being truthful with himself. 

Eight-thirty was late to be strolling into the station, well late for their normal night shift, but not by much, so could almost pretend it was a normal work day. Completely ignored the receptionist, was the normal vamp chick, all cold and staring and he did not need to see if she stared a little harder tonight, nope skipping that. “Alright, no one better have touched my desk!” Because no matter what anyone said he did have it organized thank you very much, so fuck off. Nine elbowed him to move out of the way before going around him to head father into the bullpen, because there was no one there to even pay attention. Well, fine then, so much for a warm welcome back. Watched Nine cut for the break room and after a second trailed after him, no reason not to and generally Nine did not wander off places for no reason. 

There were three people in the breakroom, the tv on mute, and hey one problem solved, “Hey found the clone.” At least he was deeply hoping so, unless this was another clone, at which point fuck this, he was out. There were only so many fucking Connor’s the world could deal with, even if the clone was an asshole. Connor, he was assuming it was Connor, reacted first, basically flinging himself across the room and Gavin would have laughed if Nine had just sidestepped. Sadly that did not happen, instead Nine stopped him rather simply with a hand held out, left Gavin to shake his head and leave them to it, however that would go, maybe Connor magically learned ASL while they were gone. Not Gavin’s problem, he instead headed for the hightop that seemed to be the meeting point of the night. 

“Looking less dead there, asswipe.” Yep, that would be the clone. Well still one problem solved, even if Gavin looked at Anderson with a ‘what the fuck expression’, not helped when Anderson just shrugged and looked to give no fucks. That was the look of a guy that was just going with shit at this point, “Glad to see you in one piece Reed.” Hell he even sounded it, and Gavin stared at him a moment before shrugging the words off, not about to get all friendly, he was not in that great of a mood. Stole Connor’s seat, because why the fuck not, and ignored the clone staring at him a little too hard, that whole situation was just weird, and Gavin still did not get the whole dragging the guy out of CyberLife, but whatever. A second later and the clone glanced past him and blinked, “Uh, anyone going to go anything about them?” Anderson glanced and then was up and moving, anger darkening his face and Gavin really did not even want to twist around to look. 

“For fucks sake! Both of you!” 

Clone blinked at Gavin, Gavin shrugged at him, “Are they killing each other?” Because over all he was pretty sure in a fight Nine would win, and seriously if they were at each other’s throats then one of them would already have been dead. Clone leaned to the side to look better, and shrugged, “No?” There was more yelling from Anderson, and Gavin listened a second before refocusing, hey he never understood the thing between Nine and Connor. “So can vampires drink coffee?” Because hey that was a real question right now, even with Anderson snapping for him to get his partner. It was Connor getting loud that had Gavin paying attention, twisting to take in the scene, Anderson between both leeches, Nine looking angry and Connor looking murderous. 

“You haven’t even told him Nine!” The words were in fact yelled, what drew Gavin’s attention was Nine flinching back as if the words struck him, and Gavin was on his feet before he really noticed. “You can’t keep using him like this.” This was hitting soap opera drama real fast, this was only the second time Gavin had seen Connor lose his cool, the first time had been at him. It was pretty much just as scary the second time, because Connor had a focus to him that was downright inhuman. Gavin still stepped in the way, even if there was several feet between both of them, not at all sure what was going on. 

“Chill the fuck out.” Vaguely saw the clone propping his feet in an empty chair like this was a show, well at least he was keeping out of the way. “Someone explain what’s going on, this is the second time you’ve flipped a lid and gone yelling about shit that makes no sense.” Though the first time it had been different, Connor had accused Gavin of using Nine, so this really made no damn sense. There was movement and a soft sound of movement before Nine had a hand on his shoulder, maybe trying to calm him down, but Connor’s eyes went red at the action. Really was wishing they had just stayed the fuck home for a lazy day, had a feeling this was going to be a long ass night, and not for the reasons he had originally thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, couple things. First thing, I love you all, 180 kudos and I think I have lost my little mind because whooosh that is amazing, you are all amazing. I happy squealed at the computer, really did. Second I learned that the asexual chick should never try to right sexy times even if I got chanted into it, thanks a lot Kasha, you suck. Third I have given up on how long this is going to be because some plot points keep getting drawn out and um hopefully this is not hitting the point of being boring? 
> 
> Fourth! I am admitting age and that I suck at social media here, but there has to be somewhere to go that I can happy ramble to other people about plot ideas and stuff with DBH, right? I have to be the only millennial that sucks at social media, but no seriously... is there somewhere I can ramble about plots and stuff? Someone help? Please?


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This likely has more typing errors than normal, bottom note says why, sorry in advance.

Somehow or another they ended up in an interrogation room, after some arguing on who was being included in this talk, whatever talk this was. There was the fact that no one seemed to want to leave the clone unsupervised, and somehow he was still just ‘the clone’ instead of there being something else to call him. Connor seemed determined to be included however, downright rude on it, claiming he wanted to make sure everything was addressed as it should be. Truthfully it was scaring Gavin. Connor’s anger mixed with Nine refusing to meet his eyes. There had been hesitation on Anderson offering to stay back with the clone, hesitation because he kept glancing between them like he was trying to puzzle it out. Which hey Gavin was right there with him. So ended up being Connor, Nine and himself in an interrogation room, the three of them spaced out, as if standing within three feet would be horrible somehow. It was fucking pathetic, and yet Gavin found himself crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at the room at large, because this was some dramatic bullshit. 

Connor was still all vamped out, and it was edging to the side of Gavin understanding why the weirdo could be seen as scary, past the whole speed and strength thing of course. Had forgotten how very still he could be, how closed off his expression could go, Gavin had forgotten how he had use to be. Gotten taken in with his trying to play human, even if it was poorly done. There was nothing human about him now. Gavin was trying to figure out if the air was in fact going colder or if it was just him, and then Nine snapped, drawing attention in the silent room and pointed at Connor’s feet. There was fucking frost crawling across the floor. Frost. What the fuck was this shit? There was a moment that Connor just stared at Nine, almost with something of a challenge before he glanced at Gavin and then looked almost sheepish. This was just getting weirder. 

“Okkkay, ignoring that we stepped into a low budget horror film, what the fuck is going on?” Because really if Gavin had learned anything in his time of working with Nine, it was that ignoring creepy vampire shit was just better for the sanity. Alright maybe he should stop that, given his own new status as a leech, but right now it was just too much. At least now that attention had been drawn to whatever was going on with Connor, it had stopped, the spread of frost had halted in it’s tracks and was starting to melt around the edges. “I apologize.” Stilted words, clipped and toneless, nothing else offered, no stupid fake ass smile, no trying to explain, that was it from Connor. It made Gavin sigh and lean against the one-way mirror behind him, “Not what I was asking about.” Because sure, freezing a room was weird as fuck, but did nothing to explain the whole anger factor or whatever was going on that had Connor in a snit and Nine looking like a kicked puppy. 

Another stretch of silence, and he had to seriously wonder if maybe there was mind talking going on between those two, fuck if he knew, but finally Nine shifted, that was it, just shifted his weight. That said something on how well Gavin was fucking trained to glance at him when Nine was purposely trying to draw attention, gesh. ‘There are some things I likely should have explained to you weeks ago.’ See this is why Gavin did not understand Connor demanding to be here, most of this conversation was going to be signing, hell he was tempted to be a dick and sign back, leave Connor completely in the dark. “Okay?” Weeks ago, that was an interesting timeline, what had happened weeks ago? Huh, Gavin took the moment to try to run through his memory but nothing really stood out, nothing really had changed between them till he had gotten stabbed at the start of the Dawley case. 

These awkward pauses were going to kill him, again, likely just because of the mood of the room, left Gavin tapping his fingers against his arm, some of his impatience bleeding through. That was apparently enough to prompt Nine to keep going, his hands flying through like he was trying to keep anyone from cutting him off. ‘I never adjusted well in the after affects of the uprising, some of that was in relation to my injury, but mostly it was because I was not created like Connor. His ability to move outside of orders was seen as a liability before he broke free, so that was adjusted in my own making. I am incapable of going without a mental link, a leash if you will. During my recovery it was North that stepped in and took over mental link required, however she ended up wanting more from me than I wanted to give. When I could I cut the link and left, tried to stay on my own, it went poorly. Connor offered to try to help and I had no choice but to take him up on it. Joining the DPD was originally to stay within more constant contact with him, however the link between us was weak at best. His own strong feelings on not being in charge of someone did not set well and created problems.’ 

Nevermind that technically Gavin was keeping up with what was being said, technically he did not miss anything at all, still took it all in, even if his brain was being slow to comprehend. Because Nine basically just said that CyberLife fucking designed him to be controlled, that he had to be on a leash, as it was often called. That CyberLife had not liked that Connor could work around orders the way he did so they corrected the so-called issue. Then add in that it was the crazy bitch that apparently had taken up reigns for a while, and yeah okay no wonder she kept popping up. So North somehow ended up in charge of Nine, literally, and Gavin wanted to go find her and strangle her with his bare hands, a bad idea likely but it was there, because it pissed him off. Knowing she for a while could have told Nine to go jump in traffic and he likely would have. Nine somehow left her though, and instead Connor swooped in and picked things up, which over all was better he supposed, at least Gavin knew he would not have done anything towards Nine. Not really. The thing was though that Gavin had a feeling he knew where this was going. It was a cold dread in his chest and as much as he wanted to say something the words escaped him. 

Nine had not slowed or stopped, powering through without really looking at Gavin. ‘Our link was fraying daily, to the point that upkeep was almost impossible and other situations needed to be figured out. It was rather accidental at first, it was Connor that pointed out the secondary link. Time did everything else, and it was in short order that it was not Connor that I was linked to anymore, but you. I asked him to not say anything, told him that I would explain everything to you, what it could mean, except I did not want to lose what trust you had with me. It was still a daily wonder if you could stand me or not, and I did not want you to push me away, at least because there was no other option really open. And then you got injured. That was the first time I tapped into the connection, sharing strength and healing. If you had not trusted me it never would have worked, but the link strengthened, tying us together. Connor saw that and assumed that you were using me for your own needs.’ 

Gavin needed to sit down. The chair was just a few steps away and that was too far, so he slid down the wall, just as casual as could be, with the vague thought that if he had still been human he likely would be in a panic attack. Oh, wait, maybe he still was, just without the shortness of breath, he was still dizzy though, which was unfair to learn, leeches could have panic attacks. Okay, great. This was fucking great. So. So apparently there was mind whammy shit that had been going on. Okay. There was movement and he knew who it was, knew it from the silence, drew back with a snarl, “Don’t.” He could not deal with Nine trying to be comforting right now, because what, because it could be that he had to give a shit? Could be that he was forced to care, because apparently he fucking willingly went with leashing himself to Gavin. So he had to care, right, had to give a shit because Gavin had become the link to keeping his sanity or whatever, so he had to care. Made sense, would be the only reason why Nine would give a shit. Yeah, made perfect sense. 

Footsteps to the side and it was Connor that was kneeling next to him, Connor that was careful to not touch him, Connor and his weird habit of breathing and making noise and trying to be so fucking human. “Take a breath, it will help, just like any other time, hold it to the count of three and let it out. Just because you won’t pass out doesn’t mean you will not feel like you can.” That hardly seemed fair, but Gavin listened anyway, because he was dizzy and light headed and yeah listening sounded like a good idea. Fuck it. It helped, so he did it again, not needing to be told, shit maybe he would try to remember to do the whole breathing thing normally. “Do you need anything?” The question was soft, and Gavin snorted at it, because how was he supposed to answer that? He needed just for once things to not go to shit, he needed this time to have been different, he needed for once someone to not be trying to just use him to their own ends. Had somehow thought that Nine was different, how fucked up was that. Gavin shook his head and worked on standing, sure that they expected him to be angry or something, expected him to lash out. 

Yeah, a week ago Gavin likely would have, days ago he would have snarled and gotten pissed, days ago everything had been different, days ago he had been alive and still wondering when everything would go wrong. Days ago this would not have hurt so much because he had been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Gavin had been stupid though, had thought that this time was different, had taken things at face value, that Nine cared, that Nine wanted him around possibly forever, because fuck only knew how long leeches really lived. Well maybe he did want Gavin around forever, as long term investment to his own well being, to avoid having to go back to North maybe. To have someone wrapped around his finger and so stupidly blind. Gavin took another breath and did not glance at Nine standing only feet away, barely glanced at Connor before moving around him for the door. No one stopped him from leaving, and Gavin was blind to anyone he might have passed on his way to the back door. Made it outside before everything caught up and he punched at the brick facing, pissed the fuck off with a well of other emotions that just threw oil on the fire. 

Before he would have broken fingers from such a move, stupid fucking idea punching brick, now it was the brick that gave away and Gavin had to tug his fist free from the hole he made. That somehow was a bucket of water across his anger, a reminder that things were different now, he was different now, fucking dead, undead, whatever. The door opened and Gavin grit his teeth, prepared to spit words, insults or whatever he needed to be left the fuck alone. It was the clone though, and the surprise of that had him pausing. “What the fuck you want?” It was barked out and he got an shrug in answer, the door closing and the clone tilting his head like a fucking puppy dog. 

“Well Nine is basically crying on Eight’s shoulder and the human is fluttering around them like a buzzing fly, so I figured I’d be the responsible adult and check on you.” Gavin blew a huff through his nose and went to pacing, restless and too hyper to stand still, needing to move before he punched the wall again. The clone hummed softly and of course opened his fucking mouth to keep talking, “This whole thing is pretty funny really, at least for me. I spent weeks reading reports on those two, mission statements and testing results, ability synopsis reports and the whole thing. Then find out they are fucking useless really, so tied up in their humans, pathetic really.” And for a moment Gavin wants to snap at him, wants to defend Nine, but lets it pass because fuck that noise. “Oddly adorable though, you know? The two blood suckers in the word that could topple governments if they wanted, and here they are, playing house, falling in love and shit.” 

And that, that Gavin cannot let go apparently because he finds himself spinning, stomping close and thrusting a finger against the clone’s chest, a snarl twisting his lips. “You don’t know shit. Those fuckers are just pulling strings and acting a part, like this is some shit show they are running.” Moving pawn pieces across a board as they wanted or needed, and Gavin had fallen for it like a dumbass. The clone glanced down at the finger and glanced back at Gavin with something of a smirk that flashed a fang, gave a shrug like it was nothing. 

“I brought you coffee, you asked about it, yeah? This’ll taste like shit, but here you go.” The topic change was jarring, abrupt enough that Gavin was left taking the offered foam cup automatically. “Most liquids are fine really, avoid solids though, invest in sunglasses though I guess since you’re used to being human it won’t be a big deal otherwise.” A shrug and he turned back for the door, as casual as could be about the whole thing, and Gavin sputtered, “That’s it?” Because somehow that seemed lacking, there had been a build up like for some insane reason the clone would try to defend what was going on, and now he was just walking off. “Hey I’m not a marriage counselor here, I don’t know what’s going on between you guys, I got the gist of it and don’t care enough to learn more. Boohoo, you fell for a leech that basically chained himself to you because he’s a dork that was falling in love and didn’t notice. You all seem pretty emotionally constipated so it fits really.” Another shrug, and he opened the door just enough to slip through, cutting the conversation off and leaving Gavin standing there slightly confused, but with coffee. 

Took a breath and blew it out through his nose before looking down at the cup, half wondering for a second if it was poisoned or something, but that seemed pretty far fetched, so took a cautious sip. It was coffee, except Gavin was pretty sure he could taste about a dozen other things at the same time, making him pull the cup away to blink at it, was not bad, just... okay it was pretty bad. Was pretty sure he could taste every little thing in the drink, including dust and styrofoam from the cup, well then, this was disappointing really. Maybe there was like super fancy leech coffee? If he had his phone he would be looking that up right now, even knowing he was just avoiding everything else going on. Avoidance really was a problem, but he was calmer now, having been distracted by both the clone and the dirtwater that Gavin was refusing to think of as coffee. He had been warned it would be shit, to be fair or something.

Okay, think things through, he could do that, go over what had changed and what had not. Had Nine ever really done anything weird? Well yeah, all the time, but not exactly towards or to Gavin so much, if anything he had figured out what pissed Gavin off and adjusted. The first few days they had worked together had been awkward and Gavin had snapped at him what felt like a million times, but never for the same thing, never had to repeat himself. Nine never tried to tell him what to do, even if Gavin was way off track on shit, would just be ready with an answer when Gavin figured out his own mistake. Really things had settled in about a week now that he looked back on it, which yeah was weird but whatever. If whatever this was had only been going on a few weeks then anything past that would be more true, yeah? Gavin grumbled and dumped the coffee on a dead patch of grass so he could shove the cup in the trash and have his hands free. Hard to figure anything out when Gavin would admit he knew fuck all about vamps really, or rather the whole leashing thing. 

CyberLife had claimed that leeches were tame and controlled, collared and leashed was how the public took it. Like exotic pets, except worse because vampires had been seen as less, created and fake, not alive or real, man-made to be used. There had been something to the idea of them being controlled, they had been blank and took orders without pause, they had been dolls ready for tasks, any task. Gavin had not kept up with the uprising as a whole, knew there had been rumors of vamps going their own way, of claiming to be their own person, reports that were fast buried and gone. Things had pretty much exploded in about a week, maybe two. But he knew jack about what really happened, how CyberLife had controlled them, what that might mean for Nine, if he really had to be leashed to something what did that mean? He never acted like he had to listen to Gavin, never acted like he wanted to carry out tasks or whatever. So this did not make much sense over all. How much control was there really? How much of their entire working relationship, or personal one, had been colored by this? 

Fucking shit. Turned to head inside before thinking it out more, otherwise he was going to drive himself crazy, was going to run this all in circles with no real answers at all. It was fucking pointless. What was done was fucking done, now came either figuring this shit out or moving the fuck on. So like the coward he was, Gavin threw himself in his desk chair instead of going to find Nine, made a face that someone had in fact cleaned his desk and woke up the terminal to log in. Found that Nine and he had been marked as missing and pending investigation in link to the Dawley case, marked that file as closed pending paperwork, then went ahead and started the paperwork. Was pretty fucking sure at this point he could confirm they were no longer missing, so worked through the action report of everything he could remember, from leaving the station for the clinic to strolling back into the station. Ended up being a lot more shit than he originally thought. Was not helped by his pausing to look up info regarding officer Wynn, having to grin to find out he was alive and would make a full recovery. That was good, he seemed like a good guy, Gavin still had a chance to learn if the guy had a first name. Maybe apologize for dragging him into that shit storm too. 

Somewhere in typing out the move from the walk-in fridge to the other room he heard the approach of footsteps and blew out a breath, it seemed they had trickled out of the interrogation room. Debated being petty as fuck and ignoring them. Instead saved the document and leaned back in his chair to watch, almost amused that it was Anderson leading the party, and not surprised when he cut for the break-room. Connor followed almost at his heels, looking less creepy now, thank fuck for that, and did not even glance over, so much for great senses or whatever. It was of course Nine that brought up the rear and came to a dead stop to stare at Gavin, and alright yeah he looked emotionally stopped up, glanced towards the break-room and back at Gavin like a lost puppy almost. Made Gavin roll his eyes but he nodded towards Nine’s desk before dropping his eyes back to his report, honestly wanting to get this crap done. No matter what it was CyberLife’s fault his ass was dead, funnily enough Gavin was vengeful enough to make sure they were taken apart for that. Publicly and messily. 

Went back to typing his report, it was only the click of a second keyboard that let Gavin know that Nine had in fact moved to his desk, because apparently even gaining vamp senses Nine was silent. Which yeah, it made sense if he was made to go hunting other vampires, but holy shit it was crazy to think about. Ignored it and threw himself back into finishing up the report, only breezing over a few things because honestly his memory was still spotty as hell at some points. Totally skipped things on writing up their stop home, and yeah was well aware they would likely get in trouble for not immediately checking in, for taking that side trip home, but whatever. Automatically sent the document over to Nine for him to read through and check, leaned back and stretched, arms over his head. Really wanted coffee what was not shitty, and a phone, maybe mostly a phone. Would need to hang around for the day crew anyway, so had time to kill. “You almost done?” They needed to talk anyway, without a babysitter. At some point he really needed to figure out that whole fast typing thing that Nine did, all blurred fingers across the keyboard. Then again about two pages in and Gavin’s wrist had started to click, which sucked, but he supposed he still did have pins in his left wrist, so maybe no fast typing for him. Damn. Would have made paperwork a breeze. 

Nine looked fucking startled on being addressed, which was some shit right there, but nodded and flashed a quick sign for five minutes. Alright, that was fine, left Gavin digging through his desk drawers, pretty sure he had an emergency credit card stashed so he could get a phone. Would have to call to cancel everything in his wallet, and get a new ID, shit, seriously fuck CyberLife, they were thieving bastards, his jacket, phone and wallet, service gun and badge were all missing from this shitshow. He would have to fill out almost a book of paperwork over the gun and badge, fucking hell, something else to get chewed out over. Still gave a soft ‘ah-ha!’ on finding the emergency credit card, because it was something going right at least, right now Gavin would take anything he could. Pushed back from the desk to stand and watched Nine almost topple his chair in getting up, Gavin had to shake his head on that, yeah they needed to talk so Nine would stop acting weird. 

Given the current time of night his best bet was a corner store, some prepaid thing would at least get him connected with the world again, this was maybe a sign that Gavin was addicted to his phone. Oh well. Outside was weird as shit, now that he was paying more attention, like he could tell it was cold outside, but it was in some disconnected way that did not really bother him. Which hey was okay by him, no more freezing his ass off, except he was cold even if he did not shiver or otherwise react to it, which was just fucking weird. Then there was the fact that street lamps were bright pinpricks of light that were almost too bright halos of light, almost blinding out of the corner of his eye, but head on they seemed fine? Then again away from the halo of light and the world lost color but stayed sharp, clearly defined instead of being lost in shadows. Gavin huffed and glanced at Nine, “Alright,” Paused a moment, because as much as he wanted to keep ignoring shit even he had to admit it would be stupid. “Explain it to me in simple terms, whatever this link is.” 

Because now that Gavin had gotten out his burst of panic and anger and had time to chill out his brain was trying to tell him that maybe this whole thing was being blown out of proportion. Did he think Nine would use other people if he had to? Oh fuck yes, but Gavin did not think Nine would go using someone and then date them. Not when dating had included things like Gavin asking stupid questions, Nine sharing bits of his past, getting shoved into HOA meetings and couch cuddles. None of that really came off as just trying to shift a pawn piece across a board. Nine was a private person, like massively so, he ignored most people, refused to so much as shake hands with people, barely seemed to bother with Connor, and he went letting Gavin into his house. That had to mean something, something more than some creepy leech shit. 

Nine blinked at him, as if waiting to see if this was a trick, before tilting his head and moving to answer, hands hesitating just a moment before he launched into trying to explain. ‘In this case it is a one way passive connection. A stabilizing link, instead of something like CyberLife used. When my connection with my handler broke originally it was learned that without some type of link my mental state unravels.’ Walking down a street and trying to pay attention to a conversation in ASL was not the easiest thing, and Gavin would deny almost walking into a light post. Nine however paused and casually pulled him to the side, so instead Gavin almost tripped on his own feet, because a change in species status did not improve his grace apparently. Instead of blushing Gavin hunched his shoulders and chewed on his bottom lip, hoping that Nine would just let it go and keep explaining and Gavin would try to watch where the hell he was walking. 

It took a second or two for Nine to pick up his thread of topic, ‘It was accidental, my linking with you, if I had to guess it was based off the idea that we are partners and it started to form when I started to trust you.’ Which kinda made sense? If he was going by what was said before, that whatever connection there had been between Nine and Connor had been thin because of a lack of trust and Connor’s own hangups on the whole thing. ‘I did not want to tell you because I did not want you to push me away for a creepy leech thing.’ That got Gavin to roll his eyes, because that was just Nine being sassy. “Okay, what’s it affected then?” Because that was the real question he guessed, even if this might be a strange topic to be holding given the corner store was in sight now. 

Nine shrugged at him, ‘There is a Sprint store open, three blocks away if you are looking to replace your phone.’ Which was not an answer, but was helpful, Gavin motioned for him to point the direction because hey if he could go ahead and report his phone stolen and get a replacement that would be better. Was not even going to question how Nine knew that, rather used to the idea that Nine just knew shit, it was a fact of life. Thankfully Nine still answered what mattered right now, ‘Not much for you, as I said after Michael Dawley attacked you I tried to use the connection for the first time to help with the pain and healing. On scene the paramedics said the knife had hit a lung.’ Gavin rocked to a stop to turn and stare, because he remembered, he fucking remembered the hospital doc saying he was lucky it had not hit a lung. Holy shit. Holy fucking shit. Nine had possibly saved his life that night, and Gavin would never have known. ‘Otherwise it does not affect you in any capacity. It has granted my person a few favors, past keeping my own mind. Immunity from other vampire abilities, lessened vulnerability from the sun, as long as you remembered to eat then my own hunger was controlled and minimal.’ 

They were still standing on the sidewalk, just outside the range of a street lamp, and the sounds of the city seemed almost too close and far away at the same time. It was insanely unfair how Nine looked cloaked in darkness, sharp edges and piercing eyes, dangerous really, but he watched Gavin like it was Gavin he had to be careful of. Maybe Gavin should push things, should doubt and question everything between them, should wonder about the little things, about the big things, should worry that Nine was using him. But fuck, this was the happiest he had been in... years maybe, this was the best thing going for him in thirty-seven fucking years, this was something big, something good. So fuck it. “Why do you know where Sprint is?” Is what he asked instead of anything else, instead of pushing and casting doubt, instead of hating himself or Nine. Went back to walking, because it was cold even if it did not really bother him, Gavin still wanted his hands to stop freezing, and his ears were ice. Things maybe were not perfect, but whatever, they could talk it out later, sit down and work out details like grown adults or something. Later though. 

Nine took a second to catch up, but given he had insanely long legs it was like two steps to Gavin’s five so whatever. ‘Where do you think I got my phone?’ And somehow that got Gavin to laugh, because yeah that never would have crossed his mind, shit had never considered that yeah, vamps might in fact need to be able to hit up all sorts of random stores after dark. Should consider it now though, he guessed, since he was falling into that nocturnal category now, and not just because he was working night shifts. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fowler’s face was worth the time Gavin spent spinning in his chair in boredom, and that was after he played catch up on the case and on paperwork and looked up coffee places that served vampires with decent reviews. Had even talked to Claria in lockup, talked to the receptionist who was not that bad honestly, traded insults with Anderson and Connor, got into a mini prank war with the clone and annoyed Nine into glaring death at him. When it had come close for the normal morning people Gavin had wandered into the glass box of an office and waited, just because he could, Nine had followed him, likely to try to keep Gavin from poking things on the desk. Fowler strolled in a few minutes before seven, coffee in hand and talking over his shoulder about a parking lot light, Gavin found himself piping up on that matter just because. “I did put in a service form, like three weeks ago for that stupid thing.” Mostly because it had been in that flickering stage of thinking about dying and that shit annoyed the hell out of him, either be on or off, no in-between bullshit every few seconds. 

Had to give Fowler credit that he did not jump or drop his drink, only slowly scanned over Gavin, then Nine, then closed the office door before knocking a button next to the door that had the glass cloud over. “Of all the shit you’ve pulled Reed-” 

“Hey!” Gavin sat up and quickly defended himself on that, no way he was getting lectured for being fucking kidnapped! “Wasn’t my grand idea to-

“It’s a goddamn relief to see you. Both of you.” Oh. Reed shut his mouth with a click and stared a moment as the other man moved around his desk. Shit he was tired, had a feeling it was more than just being up all night. “Uh, thanks.” Had nothing else to offer right now, not really, slumped in the chair and looked anywhere but at Fowler, this was going to get weird fast. “Reports are in your email, should be everything.” Was trying to not fidget, or yawn, was trying to figure if he should just blurt it or let it be read in plain word without him tripping up on what to say. 

“You been checked out yet?” There was weight in those words, Fowler use to Gavin trying to wiggle out of getting physicals or bothering to take care of himself. “Should swing by the hospital, get your stitches looked at.” Yeah, and get put through his paces to make sure nothing else had happened, he knew how this shit worked. That just was not exactly feasible anymore. 

“Uh,” A pause as he rubbed at the bridge of his nose, “No, that’s probably not a great idea.” Gave a shrug and was not at all fucking surprised that Fowler looked at Nine with an unimpressed look, likely expecting Nine to take his side in the attempt to look after Gavin. Fucking hell. “Just read through everything.” Sighed the words out and moved to stand, really just wanting out of this office, wanting to go home and hug his bed. Shit he knew leeches pretty much hit the point of exhaustion at sunrise, before that had been funny, watching Nine go kind of zombie mode. Now, now this sucked, there was a hand at his elbow to steady him and it was only in that moment that Gavin realized he had listed to the side at all. This likely looked bad to Fowler, backing up his idea that Gavin needed looked at. “Read it all, everything is there, every fucking think I can remember,” Minus a few things, very few things. “I’m going the fuck home.” They were going the fuck home, because Gavin was not leaving Nine to deal with the questions and clean up. 

Maybe Fowler at least knew not to press his luck, likely it was more like he trusted Nine to not let Gavin kneel over dead out of stubbornness. Was not till Gavin got the door open that he spoke up again, “You might want to call your brother.” Soft words and Gavin closed his eyes because... fuck, just fuck. “After twenty-four hours we called your listed family.” There was a pause as Gavin took that in, ended up nodding and kept walking, there was nothing to say to that, not really. Already knew his mother would not give a shit, if anything she likely celebrated that she no longer would have to do the polite thing of inviting him to family events and holidays. So fuck her. Elijah though...

Most of the day crew was in the break room, and Gavin slipped past without being noticed, it would have to be another time that he stopped to look for the few he could fucking stand to talk to. Pretty much just Cris and Tina, he just could not right now, he would try to remember to text them later, if they did not blow his phone up as soon as the rumor mill caught up. Outside was at least away from people, but worse in the brightness of the sun, it left him hissing and stepping back into Nine’s shadow. That shit burned, like a line of flame pressing against his skin. Not helped that he felt like he could in fact fall asleep standing right there, leaning against Nine with his eyes screwed shut against the morning sun. It was Nine that steered him for the car, and Gavin really only paid enough attention to get in the car without smacking his head on the roof. Now he was thankful for the blackout windows, they totally made sense now, never could laugh at Nine for avoiding day trips again. 

Both of them in the car and headed home was a great thing, except now Gavin had other things to worry over, because some things could not just be left alone, because he guessed he owed Nine. “So, small family lesson.” Build into it, instead of just blurting shit out, maybe that would be easier. Glanced at Nine to see him looking curious but otherwise not about to question, because he was a decent person like that. “My mother has married twice, I’m from her first marriage. My dad was pretty much the one that raised me, she was, uh, well she was a bitch. Dad lost his hearing, work accident, there was an explosion or something, so she left him before I was even a year old.” He only really had to see her when she shoved her way into their lives, and that had thankfully been rare. “So I got taught ASL pretty much before I learned to talk, in case you were wondering. Well fast forward some and apparently there was a brain clot that had gotten missed from the explosion, or at least that’s what the doctors said. Dad just dropped one day, midstep and he dropped dead. I don’t know why she decided to take me in, but she did, and I got shoved into her new shiny family.” 

Gavin was pretty much full out leaning against the car door at this point, eyes half closed and watching Nine to see how he was taking everything. “I was twelve then, and it was pretty much shit, the only bright side was my half-brother, even if he was a little shit.” Was not going to go down the whole pity party path here, still rotated his wrist just to hear the click of bone against metal pins. Only reason he had got taken to the ER was because Eli had demanded it, loudly even. “He helped me get emancipated at 15 and we pretty much ended up living together. Only difference was he had a life goal and I kinda just floundered about.” Shit he was avoiding the point here, dancing around without bothering to just say it, the car was already parking even. Fuck. Took a breath and wondered if this was what break things. “I have my dad’s last name, Elijah of course has his dad’s, Kamski.” There was a a crunch of plastic and metal that made Gavin cringe because that was Nine crushing the door’s arm rest. There was a second’s pause of Nine staring at him with no expression, and then Nine was suddenly out of the car and out of sight, the car door just hanging open. 

Gavin sighed and closed his eyes, because that went about as well as he thought it would, and he was well aware that he did not hear the house door open, mostly because the alarm deactivating would have been heard no matter how silent Nine was. Was almost tempted to just stay where he was, half curled against a car door, but even he had to admit that would be stupid. At some point someone would get nosy and come check, more so with the opposite door wide open. So tried to stir up some energy and slunk out of the car, rounded the back bumper to close the other door before moving for the house. Today pretty much sucked as a whole, was an emotional roller coaster of shit, he knew they should have just stayed the fuck home. 

Made it inside and halfway across the living room before he noticed that anything was wrong, which was pretty sad, should have figured it out from the lack of cats waiting for him. It was the blood in the air however that tipped him off, the soft drop of liquid against soaked carpet that made him turn around. Had to blink at the lady on the couch, laid out like she was making herself at home, except for the fact she clearly stepped out of a horror movie. Same lady from the tower, which was impossible because she was supposed to be dead, for all Nine had named her as Amanda. Gavin had gone to Amanda’s funeral, years ago, before he had just been too fucked up to question it with the whole concussion and dying thing, now maybe she was too fucked up for him to question it still. “What the fuck?” It just kind of slipped from him really, because how was she here, why was she here? Somehow she still pursed her lips at his question and narrowed her eyes, “Where is Nine?” 

Yeah, see that was not an answer, at all, and Gavin was tempted to turn around and keep going for his bedroom, so very tempted. “Not here.” Clearly. Pulled out his phone and thumbed through what contacts had managed to be ported over, this was creepy vampire shit right here, so he was not dealing with this at all. Waited for it to start ringing and kept an eye on the impossible dead lady, was not surprised as the sleepy sounding greeting. “Dipshit I need you to get your ass to Nine’s house, there is this lady, Amanda, fucking up the carpeting.” Not the most detailed or clear explanations but Gavin still hung up before Connor could cut in. Could have texted Nine, maybe should text him, but Gavin shoved the phone back into a pocket and moved to go sink in the arm chair. “Don’t kill me if I fall asleep.” Grumbled words, not that it looked like she would be getting up, but eh, he was pretty sure he would fall asleep before Connor showed up so might as well put it out there. Really today just sucked all the way around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a baby chapter at just over 7k words, oops. So guys I got a new job, thus the wait on this... the problem is that they sent me to Vegas last Wed for training, and I am here till April 23rd. All I have is my crappy half dead laptop that has sticky keys and I type faster than it can keep up with, which is the real reason this is 3 to 4k shorter than normal. Bright side is that I am not jobless anymore? Yay? For training however I am only getting one day off a week, so next update will likely be slow as well till I get back home and settled into a new schedule. Sorry guys.
> 
> Also made a tumblr.... have not spent more than five minutes trying to figure out it, I can try tomorrow maybe? idk, but it is made at least? Literally same username as here, because it is easy and lazy... now someone tell me wtf I am supposed to do with this? Scroll and look at pretty things? -shrug-


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Totally not proof-read, or even re-read because I am lazy, ummm, long time no see? Oops.

Truthfully Gavin has not meant to fall asleep, he had at least thrown a few blood bags at the bleeding out lady before sitting down. Still he had not thought he could fall asleep given how things were at the moment. What with him pissing off Nine to fuck only knew where and then finding a dead lady on the couch, dead lady that was maybe dying.Clearly he was underestimating this whole weird vamp thing of daytime meant sleep. Was going to have to maybe apologize to at least Nine, for past times of laughing at his drowsy state. Fuck if he would ever say sorry for laughing at Connor a few times, nope, not happening. So it was the doorbell that woke him, some asshole outright leaning on it. Which wow, dick move really. There was a moment of silence and he grumbled as he stood, eyeballing Amanda, or whoever she was. Clone of Amanda? Really this whole identical people thing needed to stop though. The bell went off again and Gavin outright growled and stomped over, of half the mind to murder whoever was on the other side. 

Was actually a surprise that it was Connor, enough of a surprise that Gavin stared at him a second to make sure it was the idiot instead of his sassier clone. This was turning into some Star Wars shit, clones of genetically made people, how the fuck was this his life? “Where is Nine? Did she do something to him?” Ah nope, totally Connor vibrating at the doorstop, for once looking sloppily put together, like he dressed in the dark. Really nocturnal schedules were a bitch when shit happened during the day. Gavin blinked at him, mostly because it was taking him a second to play catch up, “Uhh, no idea?” To all of the above, the answer was to all of it. Had to wonder if the coffee he had bought as a human would be okay now, sure the station coffee had been crap, but honestly it was always poor tasting piss water. Did caffeine affect vampires? Fuck, it better. 

Lack of caffeine was what Gavin was going to blame for taking so long to figure out why exactly Connor was just standing there. Took a bit to click, Connor did not have an invite to the house. Wait. Wait. Thought, there was a thought here, weird, and Gavin glanced back behind him, towards the living room then back to Connor. “Huh.” This was weird, it was weird, right? “How come she gets to break in and here you are stuck at the doorway?” And wow did he need to hammer out a list of people that could just stroll in, would be nice to not be surprised in the future. There was something of a spasm from Connor, a flinch maybe, some expressions were still really fucking wrong for him to try to pull. Funny, but fucked up. Better than it used to be when he went just giving everyone the creepy serial killer smiles. 

“Guys, I don’t give a fuck who has a standing invite, let me in and point me to a bed to crash in.” That was grumbled words from behind Connor and Gavin knew who it was just from the voice, even if he really wanted to question why exactly Connor was bringing his clone with him. Likely it would be some idiotic sugary answer of not wanting him around Anderson. Bleh. Still he had a point, no point in playing power games right now, so Gavin shrugged, “Yeah, sure, come in.” If Nine wanted to be angry about Connor having an invite, well then he should not have up and ghosted, this shit was on him. Gavin was having to fall to calling Connor of all fucking people for help. Connor stepped in carefully, like he was expecting it to be a trap, eyes a bit too wide and jaw tensed, only to get shoved out of the way for his clone to traipse in. “No seriously, bed? Not bloody couch? Chair? Something.” Well at least he had his priorities in order and somehow Gavin was not surprised that he was in fleece pants and a baggy tee, no shoes and hair standing up. 

“That hall, your pick, just not my room.” Obviously, there were other rooms to pick on so it should have gone without saying, but Gavin had a feeling that without that qualifier he would have found his room taken over, just because. The clone gave a wave and headed that way, giving a called, “Hey ‘Manda.” As he passed the living room and Gavin did not miss the flinch that Connor gave at that lack luster greeting. Better was the soft ‘good morning’ that was given in return, that got Connor to go impossibly wide-eyed, and maybe a shade or two paler. This was going to go wonderfully, he just knew it. Mostly because Connor was still standing in the entrance way, looking completely the fuck out of place. Gavin rubbed at his nose and hunched his shoulders over, torn on being annoyed or amused and instead just turned on heel to head back to the living room. Either Connor would follow or not. 

Ended up throwing himself back in the armchair, because why not at this point. Now Gavin pulled his phone from pocket and sent Nine a text. ‘Heads up, Amanda, Connor and 2.0 here, need new couch.’ He hesitated a moment after hitting send, and followed up with a ‘sorry’, that was it, just the one word, not really sure what the fuck else he was supposed to say. Dropped the phone on the arm of the chair and leaned back, like this was just a normal day and nothing crazy was happening. Hey crazy was his new life, right? “So… can I get you anything? There’s more packets in the fridge, uh, no clue if there is a first aid kit but there is some stuff left over from my getting stabbed, can try to patch you together?” Maybe he should have thought about that before his random ass nap, instead of just leaving her sitting there bleeding, well shit. Never said he had great manners though, so eh. She was at least sitting up better, so she could not be too bad off, right? Amanda shook her head in answer, or shook her head because he was being weird, either way he was taking it as a no, she did not want anything. Which was fine, great even, what the fuck did he know about patching together leeches. 

Connor finally seemed to have collected himself because he strode in with an even fall of footsteps across the floor, measured and careful as always. Once he rounded the couch Amanda lifted her head to glance at him and then neither one of them moved. Gavin watched the mini staring contest that seemed to be taking place, really needed to figure out if there was weird vamp mental conversation thing. That or leeches were a big fan of prolonged eye contact, shit he hoped he never hit that level of creepy. Fucking vampires. In the silence the cheery chime of his phone about scared out him out the chair, and Gavin scrambled for it, mentally swearing he was changing all the default sounds instead of putting it off till later. Both Connor and Amanda had turned to stare at him all unblinking and weird like he was being the strange one in the room, yeah okay. Left Gavin ducking his head and unlocking his phone, only to sit up straighter because it was Nine replying back. Somehow had thought it would be Tina or Chris, Fowler maybe, anyone but Nine really. 

‘omw’ 

That was it, and really Gavin needed to figure out who taught Nine text speech and strangle them, because that was just annoying bullshit, typing out full sentences was not hard, come one. Sure he tended to skip punctuation, and maybe cut to the chase, but he was drawing a line, and avoiding thinking about the fact that it just took a text for Nine to come back. Did that mean things were going to be okay? That this mess was just more important? Was this going to turn into more of an awkward mess? Nine was professional enough he could just hold together to solve this mess then kick Gavin to the curb, maybe finally realizing the shit-storm that Gavin was. 

“Problem Detective Reed?” Connor’s voice kicked him back into the present and Gavin glared up at him before glancing away, no staring contests for him thank you. “Nope.” Popped the p and gave a grin just because he could, Nine was at least coming back, that had to mean something. Maybe he just needed time to think, yeah Gavin could understand that. They needed to work on their communication skills thought, holy shit did they. Connor continued to stare at him another few seconds so Gavin outright ignored him to look to Amanda. “Soo, creepy clone or fake death?” Might as well get that out of the way, even if Amanda frowned at him like he asked something much more crude. Connor was frowning more, confused this time, and ha served him right, for once Gavin in on something and Connor could be the odd one out. 

“A mix of both.” Well that was the most bullshit nonanswer ever. Left him looking rather unimpressed he was sure because Amanda pursed her lips, but she at least continued on instead of leaving it at a half answer like a weird movie villain. “I was dead for eleven days, so it could be argued both ways and neither might be correct.” Alright that was, uh, that was something, Gavin was sure, but what it was escaped him right now. He had known Amanda, sure they never got along, she doted on his brother and always tried to say Gavin was wasting his potential or whatever, but he had gone to her funeral. Had to at least respect that she had seen Elijah as something more than a too smart brat but still never inflated his ego, also never bothered to really look down at Gavin, just sigh at his lack of interest. 

“Well, you look great for a dead lady.” And really if Connor stared any harder his eyes were going to fall out, he looked like he was seeing a ghost dance a jig. Amanda looked slightly amused and trying to not smile, so Gavin would take it. “Want to explain exactly why you’re here, looking like you got attacked by a demented blender?” She looked better than she had, after the two blood bags Gavin had given her, but still still pretty bad, was pretty sure he could see rib cage, and that was just not a sight he needed before coffee. Oh, coffee, fuck it, he was trying the coffee here, had to be better than station coffee and he needed something right now. Pulled himself back up and headed for the kitchen, glad that it was mostly open concept so he could keep an eye on them. “Connor sit down for fucks sake.” Because seriously just standing there awkwardly was not doing any good, at all. 

It felt good doing something normal, just making his normal morning coffee, a boring routine really, but it was in fact normal, nothing weird or creepy about it. Could do it almost automatically, the only thing Gavin really had to focus on was not tripping on a cat because of course his being in the kitchen someone translated to them thinking they would get food from him. Nothing was turning out how it was supposed to, really the whole reason he called Connor was so he could deal with this shit, instead Connor looked like a sleepy ghost and pretty much being as useful as one. Maybe he needed coffee. Which would be Gavin’s only reason for a few minutes later passing out coffee like he was some fucking housewife. Seriously, how was this his life? Still Connor at least seemed to bring himself into the moment now, clutching the mug like it might save him, Gavin could practically watch him rebuild mentally. Though a second later Gavin had to snort because Connor tried to straighten a tie that he was not even wearing and then frowned when he realized. 

“Detective Reed asked a question.” Yep, there was his normal collected self, left Gavin to lean back in the armchair and take a very small sip of his own coffee, a tiny little sip with eyes closed like somehow it would soften the blow. It was... eh, not great but not horrible. It was coffee, swore he could taste the soap the mug was washed with, fuck it, whatever, he would adjust or experiment or something, fuck if he was giving up coffee. Blinked his eyes back open and settled in for whatever this was. 

Amanda was polite enough she sipped at her own coffee and she earned points just for that, or maybe she was buying time before answering. “Are you still in contact with Elijah?” There was a beat of silence before Gavin realized that question was totally for him to answer, ha haa, shit. Gave a one shouldered shrug on that, “No, uh, we haven’t talked since your funeral actually.” There had been a big production over it in fact, worst fight they ever had, and sure Gavin thought about it sometimes, just calling him up, but never did. “Well I mean we exchange birthday shit every year.” Generally stupid gifts with no card or note attached, sent through the mail, so completely lacking any personal touch. Amanda nodded as if she expected that, which was possible if she worked for CyberLife, with CyberLife? Was an undead minion of of CyberLife? Whatever. 

“The public was told that he stepped down as CEO and retired in 2028, which is not exactly true.” Gavin was having a feel this was going to go a direction he really did not want it to go, somehow a lot of conversations did that anymore. Amanda kept going, either ignoring the sigh he gave or simply not hearing it. “He took up a role as a silent partner and board member and took a four year vacation before coming back. Elijah has had a direct hand in everything that CyberLife has done since 2032, up to and including the creation of modification of the RK line. Of course his recent project would be something that you have direct experience in Gavin.” 

Silence stretched a moment because vampires were weird like that, and Gavin was processing, he still moved at least, tapping a finger on the rim of his mug that he had resting on the arm of the chair. It like said something that his first thought was the sudden understanding on why exactly Nine would react so strongly to learning that Gavin was related to Elijah. Holy fuck. Nine likely had first hand experience with Elijah, and not just a brief meeting of introduction he was betting. Then it sunk in that Elijah had been the one to kick off the experiments of turning humans. That was his last project, his version of defeating death, perfecting humanity. Of course, of fucking course it was, that had been what their last fight had been about, Gavin should have fucking guessed. What the fuck. 

The front door opened and all three of them turned just enough to show they heard it, in the case of Gavin and Connor they both stared that direction, where as Amanda had her back to the front so she simply tilted her head and waited. Gavin was on his feet and moving the second that Nine stepped into view, simply because of the tightly drawn expression on Nine’s face and the gleam of red in his eyes. Course it was the red that also had him rocking on his heels a few feet from Nine, unsure if he would be welcome right now, not sure how the fuck to apologize for being related to a world class douche. “I didn’t fucking know, I thought he fucked off as a crazy hermit or whatever, I swear I didn’t know.” Maybe if he had gotten over himself at some point and checked in he could have found out, maybe things could have been different then. Then again Elijah had always been stubborn as fuck and never wanted to listen to anyone. 

Nine clenched his jaw and stared a moment before dipping his head in the barest of nods, and for a second Gavin thought he was going to pass out because sure that was not a leaping sign of everything being okay, but it was something. Really he would take anything right now. Better though was that Nine did not go around him, instead signed a question that made it Gavin’s turn to stare. ‘Have you eaten yet?’ Had to stare because that was such a Nine thing to ask, ended up rolling his eyes, “I seriously can take care of myself damn it.” Grumbled the words with a huff but had to try to not grin like an idiot. Nine raised an eyebrow that made Gavin turn and stomp off, towards the kitchen, because otherwise Nine would just nag him. Grabbed his half empty coffee cup along the way and avoided looking at either of the other vamps in the room. 

Now that it was mentioned though Gavin was realizing that he was hungry, or would it be thirsty? It felt like he was hungry though, the whole thing was weird, and he was trying to not really think about it too hard. Blood was a new staple of his diet, a large staple of his diet, ugh. If the clone was to be believed then solid foods were pretty much a no go, really a liquid food plan for the rest of forever sounded miserable. Gavin would have to say it was a sharp downer to the idea of living forever, like right now the half empty packet of oeros on the counter taunted him. There was silence from the living room, but really Gavin did not expect otherwise, so he shoved the oeros away and found the biggest mug he could. Not really caring if anyone was watching him as he cut open a blood pouch and dumped it in the new mug before adding the rest of his coffee in. Maybe he could just imagine it was a new coffee flavor. 

Gavin stared at the darkness in the mug before picking it up and bringing it with him, not too sure he wanted to take a sip honestly, but now maybe Nine would not glare at him. He technically at least kind of followed along the idea of eating. Nine had taken over his armchair, which was not fair, but really there was not anywhere else to sit unless someone sat on the bloody couch, which ew, no. Left Gavin floundering a moment before he just leaned against the back of the armchair, then realized that would not work because he could not see if, or what, Nine might sign. Shit. Gave a little grumble and moved farther into the room and just plopped his ass on the floor. 

“Alright, so Elijah has turned into a bigger shithead, doesn’t answer the original question of what happened to you, or fuck for that matter why you came here.” Since you know, no one else was speaking up Gavin figured he might as well just keep going. 

Except it was Connor that spoke up, “Mister Kamski became aware of who exactly CyberLife was hosting recently I take it.” He looked thoughtful, glancing from Amanda to Gavin and back again. “Things are still not perfect in the method of turning a human, and last news he would have access to was that Reed was dying from injuries, with a mostly starved Nine.” He said it like it made perfect sense somehow, and Gavin had to snort because it made no sense at all. 

“Uh except his reaction to things going wrong is generally too much junk food and binging days of no sleep in a lab somewhere. Violence never was his thing.” Seriously it had always been up to Gavin to save his ass from stupid bullies thinking they could push around the quiet nerd. Between the two of them it was Gavin with the anger problems and Elijah that hid away from problems. 

“Maybe when he was human.” It was said softly, like trying to cushion a blow and Gavin’s brain stuttered to a stop. “The RK line originally came from genetic coding done for his own use, they are adaptations of the work he did for himself. Work that came from the results given from my own existence.” Amanda spoke softly, almost kindly even. “While what was done to me was medically and genetically a miracle, Elijah wanted to improve upon it before he would consider self experimentation. Perfect things to his own liking, become a god among men.” 

The mug shattered in Gavin’s hand, making him flinch and pull out of his own shock just a little, mind numb at what was just said, had to stare a moment to really figure out what just happened. Flexed his fingers and frowned at the sting, and then someone was grabbing his hand carefully, mopping up the mess with a kitchen towel. For a second Gavin really only thought about the fact that Nine would be mad about the towel, no way a mix of coffee and blood would wash out of the white towel. Of course it was Nine kneeling at his side working on trying to see how badly Gavin injured himself, right. “Sorry.” It was kind of just automatic to apologize, not sure if he was talking about breaking the mug or about the mess, or maybe hurting himself. There was a huff of air that pretty much told him what Nine thought about that, and Gavin shrugged. Was not like he would ever apologize to anyone else for anything. 

Fucking hell he was tired, was pretty sure everyone in the room was, Connor kept seeming to bounce between half asleep and jerking back into his normal alert self, Nine was moving slower than normal. Or maybe Nine was just trying to not freak out Gavin. Was highly possible. “Okay, know what, fuck it, I need to sleep, I’m sorry but in the last twenty-four hours my ass has died, I need a nap.” He needed time to process, a lot of shit at this point, and apparently that Elijah had turned into some shitty villain or whatever. 

“I can’t do this right now.” He was drawing a line, tapping out, whatever it needed to be called, and Nine nodded at his side, even as he plucked a shard of porcelain from Gavin’s hand. Ok that hurt, not fair, had thought that maybe this whole leech thing would maybe at least dull the pain of stupid injuries. He could punch a wall but got defeated by a mug, made perfect fucking sense. Well it only hurt it he was watching, which was weird, so he looked away again and glanced at Amanda and Connor, not sure if he was just kicking them out or what. Was guessing not though, not with the clone passed out somewhere and Amanda still looking like she did, though it looked like she had stopped bleeding. Oh good. 

“I agree that I think we need some time.” Connor spoke up almost softly, tone careful, “Give time for rest and to get Amanda healed before figuring out a plan of action.” Yeah sure, whatever worked right now, Gavin did not care too much honestly. “Do you mind if we stay here?” Ah there was the real reason he was being all careful and not really looking at anyone, he was expecting to get kicked out on his ass. Gavin shrugged, not giving a damn, and Nine simply shook his head, not even looking over. 

Gavin answered aloud for him, “Same spiel really, pick a room down the hall, not mine, maybe try to not bleed anywhere else though, yeah?” The last bit of course more for Amanda, hey maybe Gavin could try to talk Nine into a couch that was not so snobby looking. Nine wrapped his hand in the towel and moved to stand, apparently done. Gavin did not move to stand, instead slumped more with a bone deep weariness, only slightly surprised that Nine shuffled closer to let Gavin lean against his legs. Really what the fuck had he done to deserve Nine with his endless patience and giving a fuck? 

It was Amanda that moved first, carefully and slowly, trying to show some grace but mostly showing that she was hurt and trying to play it off. “I will be in my normal room Nine.” And Gavin did not need to be watching to know the small sound was Connor, likely looking like a kicked dog on those words. Yeah Gavin could kind of understand that one, that she had a ‘normal room’ was pretty freaken creepy, they were going to have to have a talk about this. She was like his ex handler or something, right? Why were they buddy-buddy? They had a lot of talks to go through, was this a part of dating like a responsible adult? Having conversations about weird shit? No wonder he had a long history of one-night stands. 

Gavin at least was debating standing instead of trying to nap where he was when Connor moved, “I don’t understand why you trust her, not after what she has done.” The words sounded hurt and if Gavin were another person maybe he would give a shit. There was not even motion from Nine like he would answer, because hey Connor would not understand anything anyway. Alright Gavin could kind of understand, it had been months that he knew of without Connor trying to reach out to have conversation with Nine. It was only a recent development of Connor wanting to learn how to sign. “She learned ASL huh?” Gavin did not need to look up to know that Nine nodded in answer, and that was pretty interesting, meant Amanda simply pretended to not know shit in the tower. She had learned to talk with Nine, not at him, and yeah, that meant a lot. Not that Gavin knew what to do with that information, not right now, maybe later when he was thinking clearer. 

Just like he could not work on figuring out Connor’s expression so ignored it, besides the vamp spoke up again a moment later, “I’ll clean up, you should both go rest.” Normally Gavin might snap at that, did not need Connor of all people to go cleaning up his mess, taking pity on him. Right now, right now Gavin simply did not give a shit and shrugged before finally deciding that yeah a bed would be better than face planting on the coffee table. “Is there anything I can use to cover the couch, so the cats do not get on it?” The question made Gavin blink at said couch, ohhh, huh, good idea, right, bloody couch. A hand gripped his elbow and helped pull him to his feet, Nine making sure he was steady before stepping away and moving off. 

Only took a few moments before Gavin nodded, catching on, “Yeah, he’s grabbing a blanket.” Which left Gavin hovering awkwardly, because he did not want to just walk off for his own room without... well without something. A ‘goodnight’ or something for Nine, another apology? Fuck if he knew. Crossed his arms and shifted his weight, tired and stressed and pretty much done with the day over all, too many ups and downs and shitty news bombs dropped on him. How long had his half-brother been an undead leech? Seriously how did things change that much since they used to talk? Sure he knew Elijah was weird as fuck, had to be for the whole creating vampires thing, but willingly changing himself? What the fuck. 

Nine was back and handing over a bundle of fabric to Connor, clearly just fine with Connor playing maid or whatever, so hey Gavin would just it go. “So, uh.” Paused and glanced from Nine back to Connor, nope this was not awkward at all. “Night?” Except it was morning, but it sounded dumb to go saying ‘morning’, and ‘good morning’ made him sound like one of those weird hyper morning people. The dry look he got in return still pretty much showed that he was being an idiot, blank face and an arched eyebrow before Nine gave the barest of smirks and tilted his head towards the stairs. 

There was a pause as Gavin fumed at him, really not his fault this whole nocturnal thing was still backass and weird. Was pretty sure Connor was watching them in his overly focused staring way and Gavin just wanted to escape now. “Right, I’m out.” Except that when he went to turn to wander off for the hall, and thus his room, Nine snagged him and tugged him the opposite direction. Then he finally figured out the whole head tilt thing, haahaa, oops, fuck he was blaming his being slow on being tired. “Uh, seriously?” Because hey he was fine with being pulled along, upstairs, the only area of the house he had not been because it was pretty much just Nine’s area of the house. His answer was a huff of air that could have been a sigh, and alright fine, Gavin could in fact take a hint. 

Upstairs was in fact not creepy, there were no old bones or blood stains around, not that Gavin really expected that, maybe, at least not after watching how Nine would go on bleaching sprees downstairs. If anything it looked more lived in up here, the few doors they passed were open, unlike downstairs, and the room that Gavin got to glance in was a messy office. Like paperwork on the floor next to the desk and cups on the desk. That at least let him have forewarning for the bedroom that he was lead to, to think that maybe it would not be clear cut and sharp around the edges in it’s untouched look.

There were clothes on the floor! A snort escaped him before he could mask it, because it was just funny. Nine, who was always so perfectly put together, never a wrinkle, always avoiding messes, had laundry on the floor. The bed was not made, the closet door was open to show shoes thrown haphazardly in, there were cups on a night stand sitting on books and coasters both. Yeah Gavin was amused, and amazed, and slightly in love, which was something he was totally avoiding right now. Nine at least seemed relaxed about all this, given he sat on the bed and was already getting his shoes off, letting Gavin take his time to edge into the room and look around. Which was good because Gavin was still trying to wrap his head around the idea that he was in Nine’s bedroom, and another time maybe that would have expectations and weight to it, now it was just amazing. 

“Uh, are you sure you want me here?” His voice was softer than he meant it to be, hesitant, but this felt like it meant something big. And literally a couple hours ago Nine had stormed off. Nine paused a moment, head down, Gavin could pretty much see him thinking, and then Nine was holding out both hands towards him, inviting him over. Really Gavin had to move to him with how Nine was watching him, like he meant something, eyes all sharp and focused and seeing Gavin with an intensity that made Gavin almost stop breathing. So Gavin cut across the floor, tried to not get distracted by the cat toy of a banana, and ended up with Nine’s arms wrapped around his middle while the vampire leaned against him. It took a moment for Gavin to relax into the hold, to run fingers through Nine’s hair and wonder again how he got so lucky. 

Sure they had their problems, really needed to work on the whole communication thing, but they both kind of sucked at that it seemed, and alright Gavin died a little bit. A lot a bit? Whatever. Things sucked on some levels, there was creepy vamp shit going on, he should have apparently shaken his brother years ago instead of storming out, and somehow he was happy anyway. It was strange as fuck. But right now he was okay. Let out a sigh went to pull back, only to laugh a little when Nine clung to him. “Hey now, come on, got to let me go so I can get in bed.” Nine tightened his hold for a second before letting him go, and when Gavin stepped back there was a pout being given. Which was pretty much unfair because it made Gavin want to kiss him, and hey know what, he was totally allowed to do that, even if it was just a quick peck. Mostly because Nine grabbed for him again and Gavin had to dart out of the way, laughing again because really Nine could be adorable as hell. Creepy dangerous murder leech, yep, but also clingy cuddly boyfriend. 

Stripping with an audience was not that strange, maybe before their shower it would have been weirder, but at this point Nine had seen him naked so Gavin knew already there was no reason to hide. If anything the weight of Nine’s attention was welcome, and Gavin tried to not grin too much at him, and totally did a little shimmy to get his pants off, just because he could. Nevermind that he got caught up because had forgotten to take his shoes off first and Nine was laughing at him in little huffs of air and a fucking gorgeous smile. Gavin had to roll his eye and grumble as he got his boots off, harder than it sounded with his pants around his ankles alright, had to sit on the bed to fight with the laces. 

Was when he was down to boxers that Gavin got self conscious for some reason, and thankfully Nine picked up on that because he maneuvered better on the bed and pulled Gavin to join him laying down. Hard to fight against that, not that he wanted to, he was all for plastering himself against Nine, threw a leg over and promptly used Nine’s shoulder as a pillow. He could get use to this. Tilted his head enough to press a kiss against Nine’s jaw and could feel the vibration of the little silent hum Nine gave before there were fingers under Gavin’s jaw to guide him into meeting Nine’s lips. Was just a slow and lazy kiss, both of them tired and now that they were in bed everything was pretty much in a sluggish haze. Left Gavin pillowing his face against Nine’s chest, barely registering the kiss atop his head before closing his eyes, yeah he could get used to this. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This had to be the most awkward breakfast scenario ever. Gavin only shook his head and cuddled his coffee cup, his head pounding too much to bother to look at the lineup. They were gathered at the kitchen counter top, all seated on little bar stools. Gavin flashed back to the conversation of Nine pointing out, what felt like forever ago, that there was in fact a dining room table, just a room away. Oh, cereal, fuck, he missed cereal. He seriously missed cereal, this was getting weird. Anyway, this was maybe a better dining room table talk, instead of kitchen bar talk. There should be levels of bullshitery that qualified for different areas, heavy shit should be at a real table. Too bad then that he was not getting back up now that he was seated and had been handed coffee. Not that he had sipped it yet, too busy cuddling with it and bothering to keep his eyes open. 

Really felt like he got almost no sleep. Eyes closed and then seconds later he was awake and could say with certainty that the sun had set. Which was fucking creepy as shit. Be in a room with blocked windows and be able to just know that the sun finished setting. Creepy leech shit. Apparently sleeping in was not the vamp way, because for all he was trying to smother himself with a pillow, there was no way that Gavin felt like he could fall asleep again. Not fucking fair. Not helped that Nine just rolled out of bed, wide awake and alert. Which alright was a very Nine like thing to do, whatever. 

Right now it was best to just ignored everyone, almost everyone anyway. Was maybe watching Nine and the clone, because they had apparently formed some weird friendship or something, no clue, but they were playing some phone game of scrabble against each other. Only reason Gavin even realized was because Connor got all pouty over it and that was pretty amusing. Took a sip of coffee, first sip of life giving liquid, and froze, surprised and trying really hard to not otherwise react. He failed, given Gavin was not even sure when he had slipped his eyes closed but a foot nudging his leg made him blink and look at Nine’s questioning gaze. Which only made Gavin huff at him, “Cheater.” It was grumbled into the mug before he took a larger swallow of the coffee and blood mixture, not able to deny that it was perfect. 

He had not in fact gotten to drink his combination drink before, and really had not thought about it, now though, now he was realizing that he was feeling off. Kind of like waking up with a head cold, sluggish and everything behind a fog. Not just normal morning grogginess, huh, something to keep in mind. It was still hard to wrap his head around the idea though, blood would be the staple of his diet. Blood. And sure, it tasted great, it tasted like the richest chocolate he had ever gotten, like the finest fancy ass coffee that cost like forty bucks for a tiny ass bag of beans he had to grind himself. But that was just a head fuckery all on it’s own, blood tasting amazing. He would adjust, he would, because it was better than being dead. 

“I feel we should go to the station and have everything officially on record.” It was Connor that spoke up, looking more awake and more presentable. There had been a scramble of using the dryer to get out wrinkles and hair brushes earlier, so really the only one that looked out of place was the clone. Gavin was not questioning why Amanda had fresh outfits stored in what was apparently her bedroom, not till later. The good thing was that she looked better, showered and changed, she sat a little too straight like she was maybe still in pain, but at least not like she might kneel over any moment. The clone at least seemed completely unbothered to be in sleep clothes, focused on the phone in his hand, looked like he swiped Connor’s phone, which might be hard of why Connor had been pouting. Fucking weirdos. 

It was a good point though, which was why no one seemed to argue, simply kind of rolled with the idea and everyone was moving off almost in unison. Gavin kept his ass parked on the stool and watched with a mix of amusement and confirmation that vampires were fucking strange as hell. Really, really, hoped he never hit that point. Halfway across the living room Nine paused to turn back, eyebrow raised in silent question even as he was signing. ‘Are you simply going to sit there all night?’ Making Gavin flip him off with a grumble. He was moving, he was, at his own pace alright. Which meant standing and patting himself down to see if he had everything. Mostly just being the new cell and the backup credit card, not like the had any of his normal daily things anymore. “Bringing my coffee.” Because fuck if he was dumping it, or leaving it, it was his lifeline to sanity and caffeine. 

And this was how they all ended up in one car, because of course they did, and Gavin got to learn that really anytime Nine and Connor had to get into a car there would be problems. Amanda was of no help, at all, given she watched the staring match for a few seconds before simply climbing in the back, the clone followed her with an actual laugh. Gavin stood there for another few second, just enjoying that hey he was not really cold, and that he had coffee. Then he cut in. “I’m driving, yes I know it’s automatic but driving will keep me from strangling anyone, Nine upfront, Connor get in the back.” Was there going to be an argument, maybe so, so Gavin just opened the driver door and slid in, not giving a shit that Connor had a problem being near Amanda. If it was such a big problem then he could have called a taxi. 

Except somehow it was Connor that got the passenger seat, looking vaguely smug, and Gavin just rolled his eyes. Yeah was doubly driving now, fiddled with the seat controls before putting the car in reverse and of course it was not even five feet from the driveway that Connor had to open his mouth. “Are you going to be emotionally stable enough to make a case against Kamski?” 

“For fucks sake.” It was a mumble from the back, the clone. Amanda speaking almost overtop of him, “Connor, that’s terribly rude to ask, Gavin will do what is needed of him.” Which from her was the highest fucking praise, and alright maybe she was not a creepy clone. Just a dead lady brought back, which really was he much better? See through, this is why he was driving, one hand tight on the steering wheel and the other wrapped around the coffee mug sitting on the middle console. Meant he could not attempt to murder Connor. 

“It’s a valid concern, he does not need to be in the middle of everything if it would be a pressing problem.” Defensive and almost cold, and Gavin would maybe, grudgingly, admit he had a point. Truthfully Gavin had no fucking idea though, it had been years since he had seen Elijah, had talked to him. They had ended with a screaming match and Gavin walking out. Sure they had mostly grown up together, they had been brothers, but this was a lot. 

He shrugged though, “How about don’t fucking ask if I can do my fucking job.” Left it at that, because in the end that was what he was sticking with. A lot of innocent people had been killed in some twisted experimental shit, a lot of desperate people that had just wanted to live. He could not let that just go, then add in the whole anger on being kidnapped and forced into deciding on death or being undead. Yeah Gavin would see this shit through, even if it meant slapping cuffs on his brother, half-brother really. 

Thankfully the rest of the ride was quiet, sometimes he would see in the rear-view mirror movement of Nine and Amanda talking, but that was about it. The car offered to auto park and Gavin went ahead and let it so he could down the rest of his coffee, like otherwise the station would contaminate decent coffee. Fowler's car was still in the lot, and somehow Gavin was not surprised, but still it made him not want to go in. Likely the captain had read the reports he had finished up, likely read them a few times. This was going to be a headache. And here he was rolling up in a car full of leeches. Yep, this was going to be a great night. 

Got out of the car with a sigh and kicked at the blacktop, dragging things out another second as everyone piled out. “Lets get this started then.” Keep it simple, get everyone to an interrogation room and conduct things like a normal interview, really Amanda and the clone both were basically just witnesses. This was just another part of the job, nothing out of place here, nope, not at all. Felt normal to step in line with Nine, and still ignored the receptionist, or at least tried to, except she waved and he froze for a half a second before giving a super awkward wave back. Not really sure what that was about or why, but Nine gave an amused huff laugh, really just two puffs of air and Gavin still elbowed him. So what he becomes a leech and suddenly he is on her good side? Fucking leeches. 

Somehow, by whatever grace of whatever higher power was paying attention, they all make it across the precinct to the interrogation rooms without being stopped. Then again it is night shift, so Gavin spots a whole three people in the main area. Fowler’s office has the glass blacked out but there is light from under the door. He feels like he is sneaking past the principles office after doing something stupid in class. Connor, the smart cookie that he is, breaks off to grab more chairs, clearly having learned this lesson from last time Gavin made him go play fetch. Means they all settle in pretty easily to get this shit show started. 

“I’m going to start recording, so everyone’s going to need to give their name and consent to being recorded, not fucking this up on some technicality.” That would be the last thing they needed to happen, Nine was the one that was at the computer, likely doing the sign off that he was in the room. Course they were doing this right, so Gavin sighed and drifted over, there was shit he needed to agree to as well. Mostly a sign off that he would voice everything Nine said accurately and without changing what he said. 

“Starting, Detective Gavin Reed, and Detective Nine, with Detective Connor consulting.” Connor whipped his head around on that, staring at Gavin, and was ignored for all his surprise. Really was not like Gavin could just skip him, he was here, and by now it was likely a good idea to have someone else in on this, honestly might be a good idea to drag Anderson in, as much as it pained him to admit it. Huh, thinking of, where was Anderson? Connor had not seemed surprised to not see him waiting, so Gavin tried to ignore it right now. 

“Amanda Stern, and I am aware that I am being recorded.” She picked up without much of a pause, or look of concern to how things were happening, if anything she looked vaguely smug, then again she always looked like that. 

It was the clone that was surprising really, “Uhh, Connor, but not Connor?” Apparently the request for a name was a surprise, with half the room looking at him he shrugged, “Go with Sixty, good enough, and yeah, recording is fine.” If anyone looked pained by his laid back reply it was Connor, who was staring at the newly dubbed Sixty in a new light. 

And from there it launched into a mass information dump, with Amanda doing most of the talking, and Sixty only chiming in here and there with snipping comments or quirky details. 

Broke down the story that Elijah never retired, that he pushed for more testing, better perfection, that for all he was the owner of CyberLife everyone bowed to his wishes. He was the brains and the money behind everything, and everyone knew it, without him most of CyberLife never would have happened from the point of his ‘retirement’. His wanting to market turning was not a new thing, it was simply a plan that was a long time in the making. There had been problems previously, there were simply some vampire lines that were incapable of being passed along. It had taken time to figure out the whys and hows, and then now things were still being perfected. Nevermind that all work on creation or altering vampiric lines was legally supposed to have ended. 

Amanda laid out everything in detailed cold words, the experiments done to vampires before and after the uprising, the marketing to the dying and the homeless for bodies. How there had always been cullings of vampires, sometimes entire lines even. After all Markus was labeled in the database as an RK200 line, but Connor’s own line was RK800, there had been lines in the middle there, 300 through 700 simply never made the cut. Explained how there were still some vampires that wanted to help CyberLife because of left over links, mental connections and ingrained loyalty. How they were used, and how Amanda did her best to shield as many as she could, cut as many lines as she could every time she had a chance. 

Was how she ended up finding Sixty. And that ended up being a whole new story, to explain his name, to explain that for his line, the RK800 line of vampires, he was the sixtieth made. Created? Born? He was Sixty, apparently Connor was the fifty-first, and it did not need to be said what happened to the numbers around them. Amanda took Sixty in the best she could, and when she had a chance to get him out she took it, even if he was an asshole and went above what was needed with shooting Nine a few times along the way. And then just to add into the story Nine got explained, and Gavin tried to not dig his nails into his palms to learn that Nine had to watch far too many versions of him be discarded for not being perfect enough. Nine was the eighty-seventh of his line, the fucking eighty-seventh, and Gavin tried really hard to not really think about that. 

The clinics got explained. Collection points really, a way to get blood from vampires and test to see which lines had a better chance of passing the virus along to humans. Which ones would pass what traits even. Also a good front to win over vamps into helping, to find humans that needed help. A public face really, one that could not be directly tied to CyberLife to be easier to trust. 

There was never supposed to be a kidnapping, minions acting on their own really, trying to win points of by delivering two nosy cops. Then middle management figuring they could use it to their advantage, get blood from only remaining vamp in the RK900 line and see what would happen with him trapped with a human he should have some connection to. Amanda had stepped in as soon as she had heard, bullying her way in because the RK lines had been hers to oversee and control. She could not tip her hand too early but she could set a scene and be confident that Nine would see through it. 

The fall out was Elijah finding out that his half-brother had been taken, had been hurt and offered as a steak on the side in some half-baked test or experiment. Amanda confirmed that it was Kamski that attacked her, furious that she would not have told him, would not have done everything she could to protect Gavin. Left her for dead and she picked herself up and left. 

There was shit that Gavin wanted to ask, but none of it important to the case, none of it mattering for the mess they needed to clean up, nothing that needed to be recorded. There was still to go over though, and he kept his head on straight for it, so question bounced between everyone to cover the other details. When did Kamski experiment on himself to become a vampire, apparently during his four year break from CyberLife. Why did Amanda not come forward before, both for not being as dead as records would show and for everything going down with CyberLife. There her answer hesitated, and she could only say it was a mix of fear and control in the earlier days. Questions continued and she answered everything.

By the time they wrapped up it had been over two hours and Gavin really needed another cup of coffee, or maybe to just break down and get a blood bag straight. Even everyone else was looking a little peckish. So of course when he stepped out of the room Fowler was exiting the observation room. There was a pause before Fowler narrowed his eyes and spoke up, “The two of you in my office, fifteen minutes.” And then he was moving away and Gavin realizing he had hunched his shoulders in like he was about to get yelled out. Alright. Fifteen minutes, that meant he could meander to the break room, that meant they could figure out where Amanda and Sixty were going. 

Also apparently meant meeting up with Anderson in the break room. Course it was Connor that broke off to go talk to him, so hey problem solved. Gavin hesitated far too long on what to do, given Sixty shouldered past him. “Just get a blood bag you idiot.” And really Sixty was far too comfortable in the break room, digging through the fridge to pass Nine a bag and throw one at Gavin. Left him to scramble to catch it, not wanting to know if it would break on hitting the floor, not sure how he would react to the splatter of blood across the floor. Course then he was just standing there clutching at a bag of blood, one of those made for leeches so it was labeled and almost fancy looking. Really why could it not be bottles or something, at least a box instead of a bag. “Why is it all bagged blood?” The question just kind of slipped from him, his frustration getting the better of him as Gavin stabbed the straw in a little more violently than needed. 

He refused to meet anyone’s eyes, but still paid attention when Nine signed, ignored Sixty’s shrug or his balancing his chair on two legs. ‘There are other container methods, bagged is simply the mostly widely sold. Likely originally as a reminder to humans that it is blood that we survive from.’ Another dividing line, make it so it could not be mistaken as a normal drink. Gavin did not need that part pointed out so directly. ‘If you would prefer I can start stocking differently at home.’ It was a nice offer, and Gavin was pretty sure he was blushing, which how the fuck was that fair, he was dead, blushing should not be a vamp thing that was possible. “Whatever.” Was the best answer he could grumble out, but Nine likely could figure out what he meant. 

So they all sat around the breakroom drinking from baggies, this was just weird, and somehow his life now, chilling out with a bunch of leeches. Yep. Good times. “Sooo we just ignoring this whole shit storm between you two?” Words from the clone, Sixty, and all he got in reply was a nod from Nine and a grunt from Gavin, because really that seemed to be what they were good at. Besides it was Sixty that said he was not a counselor or whatever. They could talk later, without an audience and not at work. “Huh, I’m moving in with you guys, way less drama.” Which somehow just pulled attention to the other side of the room, with Anderson and Connor in a hushed argument, Amanda standing to the side watching them. Yeah they were a whole new level of weirdness really, but Gavin still had something to say on the whole thing. 

“Uh, no, fuck off.” Downstairs was his damn it, uh maybe, glanced at Nine a second because things were thrown off now that he had been upstairs, but the point stood that he did not need the bitchier sassier version of Connor chilling in the house. Given the answering scoff, Gavin had a feeling he did not have much of a say and it would be up to Nine to put his foot down. “I will legit shoot you if you surprise me, fair fucking warning.” Like full out in the face, never mind currently he was lacking a firearm to carry out that threat. Know what, he did not need this in his life, otherwise he was going to think Sixty was halfway decent or something and that was not allowed. Only decent leech was Nine, end of story. 

The weird ass empty slurp sound was creepy, seriously bagged blood was just fucking weird, but a great reason to run away. It had been fifteen minutes, right, close enough at least, he was calling it, yep, first time ever he was excited to get to the captain's office. Fuck his life. So Gavin ran away, or strolled away quickly, with Sixty yelling ‘toodles roomie’ after him and Gavin responded with a one finger wave. Knew that Nine was following without having to hear him, because it was Nine, so addressed him with a sigh. “You’re going to let him stay aren’t you?” Somehow just knew it, otherwise he would have gotten all glarey and looking murdery instead of just letting Gavin argue on his own. Which lead to Nine touching his arm lightly to get his attention, which was new, the whole casual contact thing, and Gavin stared maybe a little too surprised at him, both of them stopped before the steps to Fowler’s office. 

‘Starting a nest would provide us with more power in the community.’ A what-who? Gavin stared at him a second, knowing he should recognize what was being talked about, it just took a second before his brain linked it. Nest, like that creepy vampire half-way house. Ah, no, he was not living in some fucked up vamp hotel. Clearly his look of horror was loud and clear because there was a small smile from Nine before he continued. ‘It does not need to be a close knit group, such as what Chloe runs. For example Connor and Amanda would be considered part of the group, but not living with us.’ Okay, better, but this was still random and sudden, except Nine never did random, so there had to be a reason. 

“Stop flirting and get your asses in here!” Fowler’s voice cut through and Gavin flinched slightly, having almost forgotten where he was. 

“You’re going to explain this better to me later.” Because really this was sounding like a self-help group for the lost and angry, which hey explained them sure, but there had to be more to this whole nest thing. Stomped up the couple of stairs and shoved the door open the rest of the way from it’s previously cracked state to go in. “You’re not taking me off this case.” Had argument ready to go, because fuck if he died for this shit only to have Fowler yank them off because of said death. Nope, not happening. He was going to bury CyberLife, it was a set goal damn it. 

And alright maybe he really needed to pay more attention to his surroundings, because it was Nine that reacted first, a solid line at Gavin’s back suddenly too close and a flare of something, power or aura or fuck if he knew, but it was sharp and smokey in the air suddenly. Not literally smokey, but it tasted like a wood stove, that unmistakable scent of burning wood. Which some part of Gavin’s brain thought that made perfect sense, Connor went all frost and ice when pissed, Nine went the extreme opposite of that. Still Gavin noticed only a moment after, “Fuck.” It slipped out in something of a yelp, “You’re under arrest, soon as I get cuffs.” Because you know, CyberLife had those, after having used them on Gavin, the fuckers. Then again he supposed he needed the heavy duty leech cuffs, not the normal ones. 

Elijah raised an eyebrow with the barest tilt of his head from where he stood against the far wall, looking far too amused, like Gavin was joking or something. Which haahaa motherfucker, Gavin was not joking at all, and really if Elijah had a lick of memory he would remember that Gavin did not joke on some shit. “Oh, am I?” Tone was musing, like he wondered if it was really possible, and Gavin took a step forward, pissed off because it was just like Eli to act like he was untouchable. 

“Yes you the fuck are.” There was something of a growl there, and it was only Nine pulling him back that kept Gavin contained at the casual shrug Elijah gave. Course then it was Fowler cutting in, sounding almost tired but mostly annoyed. 

“Reed, shut your mouth and sit down, Nine close the door.” 

Only one of them did as asked as the door clicked shut, because Gavin turned to the desk, ready to explode, “Shut my mouth?! This fucking prick is the one behind all the shit, murdering people and leeches and you want me to shut my mouth?” Fuck that shit. 

“Do calm down Gavin.” And really, in that moment, it was a good thing that Gavin did not have a gun, because if he had he likely would have really shot someone, someone being Elijah. It was not being told what to do, whatever Gavin was used to that, even from Elijah in days long gone, it was not even the tone, the little sigh like Gavin was the one being a drama queen here. It was the power that laced the words, that slid over his skin like oil, that made him flinch because for a second he almost wanted to listen, for a moment he had to wonder why he was so worked up. Just a second, and that was a second too long. 

Truthfully Gavin did not remember crossing the room, but he took some joy in slamming Elijah against the wall, in the crackle of broken glass from the display screen that made up that wall. For the first time since Gavin had stepped foot in the room Elijah looked surprised, looked unsure even, with Gavin snarling in his face he looked human and vulnerable. “You don’t get to do that, you can’t stroll in here and tell me what to do, you don’t get to play that game with me.” Once, years ago, Gavin would have listened because he was the hot headed one and Elijah was always the chill one that kept his head on straight, once he listened because they had been brothers and they tried to keep each other out of deep shit. Now though, now if Elijah thought he could pull some fucked up leechy shit on him then he was going to get his jaw broken. 

There was a clatter of a chair and the meaty thud of Fowler slamming his hands on his desk, “Reed back the fuck up and sit down! There’s more going on here than you realize.” Gavin snarled, not pulling back and torn on wanting to scream or shake Elijah, like somehow that would help. Like always it was Nine that pulled him back, literally pulled him back, not that Gavin fought him, maybe if Elijah had done more than slump against the wall like a pinned bug. As it were though Gavin stepped back and tried to take a breath to calm down, likely was not going to work, but fuck he was trying. 

Was impossible to not notice that this was a situation that Nine was not stepping forward for, he was keeping Gavin firmly between himself and Elijah. That really just backed Gavin’s wish to snap, but nothing got him to get his head on straight faster when that sunk in. “Hey-” Cut himself off, because of where they were, and who they were with, to instead twist and face Nine better, then continued in signing, ‘You can go, I got this.’ Because he was not that much of an asshole, because despite popular belief he did notice shit and pay attention. Mostly because now he knew what Elijah Kamski was to Nine, judge, jury and executioner. Fuck, mostly because Nine was not so much as looking to that side of the room, shoulders drawn tight and jaw clenched. 

Except Nine, asshole that he was, shook his head and as casually as could be pulled out one of the two chairs and sat down, still too stiff, hands balled up on his knees but he was clearly staying. That made Gavin huff out a sigh and glance back at Elijah with narrowed eyes before throwing himself down as well, fine, fucking fine, if Nine could sit and listen to whatever bullshit this was then Gavin would just suffer through. “Better not be some freaky clone bullshit.” Grumbled words as he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Fowler, at least the captain looked surprised, maybe because Gavin sat his ass down, or the words themselves, who knew. 

There was a beat of silence before Fowler sank back into his chair, collecting himself, “Mister Kamski came forward with a statement and the request for police protection, at this time that request has been approved.” Un-fucking-believable. But hey, Gavin had a great idea for protection, arrest him and toss him in a walk in freezer, Gavin could personally promise that it was perfectly fucking safe. “He has proof that Amanda Stern has been organizing the current agenda of CyberLife.” 

Nine made a movement that pretty much summed up what Gavin was thinking, ‘Bullshit.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well to start, sorry for the wait, I had a lot of bad stuff happen in a very short time period, last month all around was just pretty horrible and large sections of my life got rearranged. I cannot say that things are back on track, but I finally started having the will to write again. So if my flow for writing is off I am sorry, but not surprised, mentally I am in a very different place than I was before. Going to try to get back into the swing of things since writing does make me happy, so yep, here we go. Honestly this likely only has a chapter left, maaaaaybe two? We are super close to the end, though I already have notes jotted down for other winding stories, oops. Thank you for those that have stuck around! Hopefully this chapter was not too horrible.


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